Description of the attraction
The Novgorod land is rich in sights. One of them is Valdai Lake. In terms of water purity and uniqueness, it is put on a par with Lake Baikal. The purity of the water is due to the glacial nature of the origin. The lake is spread over the territory of almost two thousand hectares, the lake stretches for ten kilometers in length and seven kilometers in width. Compared to other lakes of the Valdai Upland, the lake is small, its average depth is about fifteen meters, but there are places where the depth reaches fifty two meters. Not a single lake on the Novgorod land has such depths.
Many islands rise from the water surface of Valdai Lake. The largest of them are Ryabinovy and Berezovy, which received their names because of the trees growing on them. These islands divide the water surface of the lake into Dolgoborodsky and Valdai reaches.
The sufficient depth makes the lake open for shipping, which lasts from early May to late November. The rest of the time, the water of the lake is held together by ice. The navigable canal makes it possible to get to the neighboring lake with the interesting name Dinner. The canal was dug back in the middle of the nineteenth century. Previously, instead of a canal, there was a narrow rivulet Fedoseevka, no more than one and a half meters long.
On the shores of the lake, pristine forests grow on the hills, and sandy beaches descend to the water itself. Many springs flowing from the bottom of the lake provide it with clear, clean water. The very name of the lake speaks about it. It is translated into Russian as "white or light".
The small flow rate and a significant amount of water, the complete renewal of which is possible only once every forty years, makes it possible to classify the lake as a stagnant water body. This also influenced the ichthyofauna of the lake. In the lake, you can catch with a float rod, mainly perch, roach, ruff no more than twenty centimeters long. Larger fish are found much less frequently. But this does not interfere with the active fishing of fish, which is carried out by amateur fishermen and entrepreneurs. The total catch is forty tons per year, the third part of which falls on organized fishing by entrepreneurs.
The purity of the lake, the untouched nature and the relative distance from the bustle of the world attracted monks to the islands. In the middle of the seventeenth century, a monastery was founded by Patriarch Nikon on Ryabinovy Island, in the image and likeness of the monastery on Athos. This is how the Iversky Monastery, an architectural monument of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, arose. The monastery had a great influence not only on Lake Valdai and its surroundings. In fact, it has become a center of spirituality, education, printing, the birthplace of new crafts and their development. And the lake received another name - Holy. Currently, the monastery is restoring its former grandeur. Every day, bells ringing over the water, calling the faithful to prayer, hundreds of pilgrims gather under the snow-white walls and silver domes. Alexy II at the beginning of 2008 consecrated the monastery.
One of the attractions of Valdai Lake is the Bells Museum. It is located in a rotunda church built for the Russian Empress Catherine II. The museum displays bells from all over the Russian Federation. In addition to the bells themselves, the museum contains unique information about the technology of their production, about the art of bell ringing. Some bells can still delight the museum visitors with the indescribable beauty of their sound.
Valdai Lake occupies a worthy place in the blue necklace that form the lakes of the Valdai Upland.
