__NOTOC__ Lake Ritsa ( ab, Риҵа, ka, რიწა, tr) is a lake in the north-western part of the

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, in the

Caucasus Mountains The Caucasus Mountains, : pronounced * hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ, : pronounced * az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced * rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ * tr, Kafkas Dağla ...

. It surrounded by mixed mountain forests and subalpine meadows. The road from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

coast was built in 1936. The resort of Avadhara lies to the north of the lake. The lake was an important tourist attraction during the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

period. While the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Georgian-Abkhaz war destroyed much of the tourism industry in the country, the lake is still frequently visited by Russian tourists.

Geography

Lake Ritsa is the deepest lake in the

autonomous republic An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province or state. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. Man ...

Abkhazia Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...

(116 m), and is rich in

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

. It is fed by six rivers and drained by one, the

Iupshara River The Iupshara (, , ) is a river in northern Abkhazia. The river flows from Lake Ritsa to the Gega River, a tributary of the Bzyb River. The total length of the river is with a gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued ...

Environment

Lake Ritsa's water is cold and clear. Mountains with heights of 2,200 to 3,500 m surround the lake. The region around Lake Ritsa is a part of the Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests ecoregion with a fairly high concentration of evergreen

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

groves. Many specimens of the

Nordmann Fir ''Abies nordmanniana'', the Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir, is a fir Indigenous (ecology), indigenous to the mountains south and east of the Black Sea, in Turkey, Georgia (country), Georgia and the Russian Caucasus. It occurs at altitudes of 900� ...

, which reach heights of over 70 metres (230 ft), are found around the lake. In 1930 the

Ritsa Nature Reserve Ritsa Strict Nature Reserve (Georgian: რიწის დაცული ტერიტორია) is a protected area in the Gudauta District of Abkhazia, in the country of Georgia. The reserve's main goal is to protect Lake Ritsa and con ...

(162.89 km²) was established to protect the natural state of the lake and the surrounding land.

Notable residents

The Soviet leader

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

had one of his summer-houses (

dacha A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbu ...

) by the lake. Later

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...

had his summer house nearby as well. Today the dacha belongs to the de facto

Government of Abkhazia The Government of the Republic of Abkhazia governs the partially recognised Republic of Abkhazia. Executive branch The Republic of Abkhazia is headed by the President, a post held since early 2020 by Aslan Bzhania, who is supported by the V ...

Climate

The average annual temperature in the area is 7.8 degrees Celsius (January −1.1 °C, August 17.8 °C). The mean annual precipitation is approx. 2,000–2,200 mm. Winters are sometimes snowy, summers warm.

Legends and stories of Ritsa

There are many legends and fairy tales about the lake.

Origin

In ancient times there was a valley and a river at the site of the modern lake. A girl named Ritsa lived there with three brothers

Agepsta Mount Agepsta (, , ''Agh'aphstha'') is a mountain in the Gagra Range of the Caucasus Mountains system located in Abkhazia, Georgia. The summit is above sea level in elevation. Ecology The slopes of Mount Agepsta, up to an elevation of , are f ...

, Atsetuka and Pshegishkha. Ritsa used to pasture her animals in the valley and her brothers hunted in the high mountains by day and returned to the valley in the evening, where they ate, sang songs, and admired their sister. Once the brothers went too far into the mountains. Ritsa missed them and sang. The forest robbers Gega and Iupshara heard her and decided to kidnap her. Iupshara caught her and rode down the valley, while Gega covered his flank. Ritsa's brothers heard her crying and came to the rescue. Pshegishkha threw a sword at the robbers, but he missed and the sword flew over the river. The valley was filled with water and turned into a lake. Ritsa broke from Iupshara's grip, but fell into the lake. The brothers couldn't save her. Then Pshegishkha threw the robber Iupshara into the lake, but Ritsa's water wouldn't accept him and threw out him over Pshegishkha's sword and the water carried him away to the sea. Gega ran after Iupshara, but he didn't manage to rescue him. Out of grief, the brothers turned into mountains, and today they are still standing here to protect the resting-place of Ritsa.

Goodbye, Motherland!

Several myths have risen up about origin of the name "Goodbye Motherland!" given to cliff and observation deck on the road to Lake Ritsa. It appears the name was coined by tourist guides, as the area's real name is "Chabgar Cornice." One story goes that in the 1930s, during the construction of Stalins's

, soldiers had to transport building materials along the precarious, narrow mountain road. During one of these trips, in one of the most precarious spots, a truck fell from the edge. As the truck was falling, the driver cried: "Goodbye, Motherland!" ("Прощай, Родина!"). Another legend says a truck with captured Germans fell into the abyss. Some of the Germans, who had fallen in love with Abkhazia as a native country, shouted: "Farewell, Motherland!" Yet another says there were not prisoners in the truck, but soldiers retreating along the road at night. On a narrow road, the driver lost control and the truck fell into an abyss.

Gallery

File:Road to Ritza.jpg, Road to lake Ritza File:Ritsa2.jpg, Tourists boating at Ritsa File:Greater Ritsa Lake.jpg, Ritsa Lake in 2013

References

Lake Ritsa - Secret World
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritsa Mountain lakes Lakes of Abkhazia