Dospat Reservoir ( bg, язовир Доспат) is situated in the western part of the Rhodope Mountains,

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. The reservoir (formed by a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

in the town of

Dospat Dospat ( bg, Доспат) is a town in the very south of Bulgaria, part of Smolyan Province, situated in the Rhodope Mountains, close to Dospat Dam. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Dospat Municipality. As of December 2010, t ...

, west of Smolyan) stretches nearly northwest to the city of Sarnitsa. At above the sea level, it is one of the highest dams in Bulgaria in terms of altitude, and, with its of water area, the second largest in capacity. It is fed by the

Dospat River The Dospat (; , ) is a river in the Western Rhodope Mountains, the most important tributary of the Mesta. It takes its source from Bulgaria, from the 1643-metre-high Rozov vrah ("Rose Peak") and flows southeast until Dospat Dam, after which it ...

. The dam, which creates the lake, is built for hydroelectricity generation. There is no HPP (

hydroelectric power plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

) installed at the dam but rather the water is taken to the Teshel HPP and then further down the Devin HPP and the

Vacha River The Vacha (, ) is a river in south Bulgaria, one of the main right tributaries of the Maritsa. It is 104 km long and is formed by the confluence of the rivers Buynovska (cirillic: Буйновска река), Trigradska (cirillic: триг ...

with its HPPs, dams and reservoirs ( Tsankov Kamak HPP,

Vacha Reservoir Vacha Reservoir ( Yazovir Vacha; before 1999: Antonivanovtsi Reservoir) is a body of water associated with a dam in Devin Municipality, south Bulgaria. It is part of the Vacha Cascade Joint Implementation Project involving three more dams and f ...

, Krichim Reservoir, Vacha II HPP,

Krichim Krichim ( bg, Кричим ) is a town in Bulgaria, located in the southwestern part of Plovdiv Province close to Perushtitsa. It lies at the foot of the Rhodopes' northern slopes in the plains of Thrace, 20 km southwest of Plovdiv. The rive ...

HPP and Vacha I HPP). Besides that, a minimum of is constantly released for sanitation of the

riverbed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow ( channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks, during all but flood ...

where the average input to the reservoir is . The flora and fauna around the reservoir are diverse and the geography offers breathtaking sights. Old coniferous forests surround the lake. On the northern bank where the town of Sarnitsa and Krushata neighborhood are located. The terrain is hilly, with meadows and arable land available, used for grazing, potato growing and other agricultural activities. Parallel to the south bank are steep slopes covered in spruce and this bank is where most holiday cabins and hotels are located. The reservoir is rich in fish. It is stocked with

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...

, trout (

rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...

), carp,

European chub ''Squalius cephalus'' is a European species of freshwater fish in the carp family Cyprinidae. It frequents both slow and moderate rivers, as well as canals and still waters of various kinds. This species is referred to as the common chub, Europe ...

common rudd The common rudd (''Scardinius erythrophthalmus'') is a bentho-pelagic freshwater fish, widely spread in Europe and middle Asia, around the basins of the North, Baltic, Black, Caspian and Aral seas. Identification Morphologically, this specie ...

, common roach,

pumpkinseed The pumpkinseed (''Lepomis gibbosus''), also referred to as pond perch, common sunfish, punkie, sunfish, sunny, and kivver, is a small/medium-sized North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Lepomis'' (true sunfishes), from family Centrarchi ...

wels catfish The wels catfish ( or ; ''Silurus glanis''), also called sheatfish or just wels, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. It has been introd ...

Danube Bleak The Danube bleak or Caspian shemaya (''Alburnus chalcoides'') is a species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Iran, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, France,

and various members of ''

Carassius ''Carassius ''is a genus in the ray-finned fish family Cyprinidae. Most species in this genus are commonly known as crucian carps, though this term often specifically refers to '' C. carassius''. The most well known is the goldfish (''C. auratus ...

''. Trout are reared in cages within the reservoir. Most types of

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

are practiced: spinning with lures, fly fishing, and others. In the surrounding areas there are a number of other large dams, including Vacha,

Golyam Beglik Golyam Beglik is a reservoir near the central parts of the Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria. It was formerly officially called the Vasil Kolarov reservoir in honour of Vasil Kolarov, a communist political leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. ...

, Batak and

Shiroka Polyana Shiroka Polyana ( bg, Широка поляна) is a reservoir lake situated in the Western Rhodopes mountains in Bulgaria. The lake is situated 30 km south of Batak, on the road to Dospat. It is located 1500 meters above sea level amidst ...

. The area offers great opportunities for recreation and tourism. Accessibility is, however, rather poor. Four main mountain roads link the reservoir to the rest of the world. One from Batak, a second from

Velingrad Velingrad ( bg, Велинград ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, located at the western end of Chepino Valley, part of the Rhodope Mountains. It is the administrative center of the homonymous Velingrad Municipality a ...

to Sarnitsa, a third from Devin and a fourth from

Gotse Delchev Georgi Nikolov Delchev ( Bulgarian/ Macedonian: Георги/Ѓорѓи Николов Делчев; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (''Гоце Делчев'', originally spelled in older Bulgar ...

to the town of Dospat. The one from Batak allows accessibility to some of the other Rhodope dams along its length. It forks into two roads; one leading to the town of Dospat and the other to Sarnitsa. This road to Sarnitsa is in places very rutted and may prove a challenge to navigate. Along the south bank there runs a rough dirt track from Sarnitsa to Dospat but this is only used to access the holiday spots.

External links

{{commons category, Dospat Reservoir
Pictures from the Rhodopes and Dospat dam

Photos of Dospat on TrekEarth
Reservoirs in Bulgaria Landforms of Smolyan Province Landforms of Pazardzhik Province Rhodope Mountains Chech Tourist attractions in Smolyan Province Tourist attractions in Pazardzhik Province

See also

External links