Medard is an artificial

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

(now 4.93 km²) in the

Karlovy Vary Region The Karlovy Vary Region or Carlsbad Region ( cs, Karlovarský kraj, German: ''Karlsbader Region'') is an administrative unit ( cs, kraj) of the Czech Republic, located in the westernmost part of its historical region of Bohemia. It is named afte ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, northwest of Sokolov, in the territories of

Svatava The Svatava (in German: ''Zwodau'', also ''Zwotau''; further upstream ''Zwotawasser'', then ''Zwota'') is a river of Saxony, Germany and of the Czech Republic. It is a left tributary of the Ohře. Course From its source south of Schöneck (Germ ...

and

Habartov Habartov (german: Habersbirk) is a town in Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,700 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Horní Částkov, Kluč, Lítov and Úžlabí are administrative parts o ...

. The lake was created by flooding the former coal mine called Medard-Libík. The lake's surface area stretches 493 ha, its maximum depth is 50 m and the capacity is approximately 50 mil. m³. It is the largest lake in the Czech Republic.

History

Five villages disappeared due to mining: Čistá u Svatavy, Dvory, Kolonie Hahnemannova, Kytlice, and Lísková

Termination of mining

In 2000, the mining of brown coal in Medard-Libík ceased and the quarry was closed.

Watering

Filling the lake began in June 2008 when Sokolovská uhelná has ceased to draw mine water from retention and completed Medard gross technical reclamation of the future lake bottom. Since 2010, the lake is filled with water from the River

Ohře The Ohře () or, slightly less commonly in English sources, the Eger (, Czech also: ''Oharka'' or ''Ohara'', Celtic: ''Agara'', pl, Ohrza), is a 316 km river in Germany (50 km) and the Czech Republic (266 km), left tributary of t ...

. Filling building stands near the village

Citice Citice (german: Zieditz) is a municipality and village in Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 900 inhabitants. Administrative parts The village of Hlavno is an administrative part of Citice. Notable peo ...

at the narrowest point between the river Eger and future lake.

Additional coal mining

Since 2012, Sokolovská uhelná additionally mined coal near Svatava purportedly for reasons of firming shore. Reclamation and filling the lake was not interrupted.

Utilisation

Within urban studies, the lake shore area is being considered for use for various sports and recreational activities such as indoor pool, bmx area, track for roller skating, soccer field, golf course, hotel complex, kiteboarding, base sport of yachting, equestrian base, camping, caravans, cabins, swimming pools, sports grounds rope, airfield for ultralight aircraft, motocross area, diving centre, beach activities, a softball field, boating camp, campus, amusement park. Some of these planned recreational activities (''e.g.,'' diving, fishing), however, maybe hindered by high heavy metal(loid) loads dissolved and cycled within the monimolimnion of this meromicitic lake. This latent pollution/resource requires implementing appropriate science-informed management strategies.

References

{{Authority control Artificial lakes of the Czech Republic Geography of the Karlovy Vary Region Sokolov District