Zaovine lake

Zaovine lake is an artificial lake in central-west Serbia, on the Tara mountain. It was created on the Beli Rzav river as a reservoir for the Bajina Bašta II reversible hydro power plant.

Zaovine lake is located on the southern slopes of the Tara mountain, in the direction of the Zvijezda mountain, which marks the border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It spreads out between the villages of Zaovine to the south-west and Mitrovac, major tourist resort on Tara, to the north-east.

The lake covers an area of 15 square kilometres and has five branches. When the Drina river has a high water level or during the rainy seasons, water from the Drina is pumped into the Zaovine lake through an 8 kilometres pipeline. During converse conditions, water runs back from the Zaovine lake into the Drina, producing electricity by turning the turbines inside the pipeline. There are also five mini-lakes in the area (Spajića, Malo Zaovinsko, etc.) from which the water is also pumped into Zaovine lake. The road connecting Zaovine and Mitrovac bounds the northern side of the lake. The shores of the lake are seeing increasing numbers of visitors, fishermen and campers as summer houses are being built.

The entire lake lies in the Tara National Park, one of five in Serbia. The lake is surrounded by vast woods as forestation of Tara mountain is 75%. Zaovine is the area where Josif Pančić, a leading Serbian botanist, discovered the endemic Serbian spruce in 1875 on the nearby Kik hill. The hill was destroyed in the early 1980s and material was used for building the dam that created Zaovine lake. There are over 600 plant species in the area surrounding the lake, of which 15 are protected by law, including the Serbian spurce and edelweiss. Wildlife include chamois and 14 species of fish living in the lake, including nase, rainbow trout, European chub and Danube Roach.