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The Rotsee (previously known as Rootsee) is a natural
rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...
lake on the northern edge of
Lucerne, Switzerland. It is regarded as one of the best rowing venues in the world.
Description and location
The lake and its surrounding area is used for local recreation. All of the lake frontage is a protected area. The lake formed through glacial processes and it is thought that the river
Reuss flowed through this valley in between
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
s. There is no notable inflow and virtually no current. Nearby hills protect the lake from wind. It is long. These factors make it an ideal rowing venue and German-speaking rower refer to it as ''Göttersee'', which translates as "lake of the gods". The expression was coined at the
1962 World Rowing Championships by a Japanese rowing official.
The
Zug–Lucerne railway
The Zug–Luzern railway is a mainline railway line in Switzerland, connecting the cities of Zug and Lucerne. It was opened on 1 June 1864 by the Zürich–Zug–Lucerne Railway (''Zürich-Zug-Luzern-Bahn''). The Zürich–Zug railway was opene ...
is located north of the lake. The south side of the lake has residential land use. The
Ron Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald.
Ron or RON may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character
* Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character
*Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...
is a creek that is the lake's outflow; it flows into the Reuss at
Root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...
.
History
![Rotsee zugefroren](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Rotsee_zugefroren.JPG)
Since 1885, the Rotsee was used for
ice cutting
Ice cutting is a winter task of collecting surface ice from lakes and rivers for storage in ice houses and use or sale as a cooling method. Rare today, it was common (see ice trade) before the era of widespread mechanical refrigeration and air ...
, which was stored in insulated cellars lasting until autumn. Up to 80 people were employed, with the ice used by the hotel industry and brewers. This business ceased during the 1910s when
refrigerators became more economical. With its proximity to Lucerne, the Rotsee and its surrounding area has been used for local recreation since the mid 18th century. An army ammunition depot next to the Rotsee exploded in 1916, resulting in five deaths and thousands of grenades being thrown in the lake. Recreational divers spotted some grenades during the 1970s and Police divers have since recovered about 1000 grenades from the lake. Police and army last found grenades in 2020 and it is assumed that there are still more explosives in the lake.
Increasing housing in the area, with sewage discharge into the lake, resulted in ecological decline. The sewage treatment plants built at the lake in 1922 and 1929 belonged to the first installations in Switzerland, but the tension about ecological decline peaked in the 1920s. This gave rise to the founding of a society ''Gesellschaft Pro Rotsee'' in 1929 with the aim of saving the lake. In 1922, a canal was built that diverted water from the river Reuss into the Rotsee, but since the Reuss was also polluted, this did not significantly improve water quality. Significant improvements were achieved in 1974, when all domestic discharge was diverted to the new
sewage treatment
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding e ...
plant in Schiltwald (part of
Emmen).
The society was eventually given a lease of the lake by the city of Lucerne. The name of the society has since changed to ''Quartierverein Maihof'', which leases the lake to this day.
Rowing
![2021 NZL men's eight at the FOQR](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/2021_NZL_men%27s_eight_at_the_FOQR.jpg)
The Swiss national rowing championships, the first
regatta on the Rotsee, was hosted in 1933.
European Rowing Championships
The European Rowing Championships is an international Rowing regatta organised by FISA (the International Rowing Federation) for European rowing nations, plus Israel which, though not a member of the European federation is treated as a Europea ...
were held here in
1934
Events
January–February
* January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.
* January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...
and
1947, and again in 2019. The inaugural
World Rowing Championships
The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It is a week-long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of th ...
were held in
1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
* January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism.
* January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...
,
with subsequent world championships in
1974,
1982 and
2001. The Final Olympic Qualification Regatta (FOQR) was held at the Rotsee in May 2021 as a qualification event for the
2020 Tokyo Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...
.
The lake is the venue for the final leg of the
World Rowing Cup
The World Rowing Cup is an international rowing competition organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It began in 1997 and comprises three regattas (apart from in 2001 when there were four) held throughout early summer. In each eve ...
series. When a World Championships is also being held in Lucerne (as happened in
2001) then no World Cup race is held on the lake.
See also
*
List of lakes of Switzerland
This article contains a sortable table listing all major lakes of Switzerland. The table includes all still water bodies, natural or artificial, that have a surface area of at least , regardless of water volume, maximum depth or other metric. The ...
References
External links
Official Rotsee websiteQuartierverein Maihof(in German)
{{Authority control
Rowing venues
Lakes of the canton of Lucerne
Lakes of Switzerland
LRotsee