Lake Leśnia (Polish ''Jezioro Leśniańskie'', German ''Marklissa-Talsperre'') is a small

artificial lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

, located on the Kwisa river, between towns of Leśna and Gryfow Slaski in

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship (, ) in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. It covers an area of and has a total population of 2,899,986. It is one of the wealthiest ...

, southwestern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It was opened on July 15, 1905, after a dam had been completed near the village of Czocha. The dam was constructed between 1901 - 1905, by the government of

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

’s

Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1742 and established as an official province in 1815, then became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1919, as ...

. Most workers employed during construction came from

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, and total cost was estimated at 1,270,00 reichsmarks. The dam is 45 m high, its length is 130 m, and its thickness - 8 m on top. Total area of the lake is 140 hectares, and volume - 15 million cubic metres. The length of the lake is around 7 km, and it is up to 1 km wide. Between 1905 and 1907, a hydroelectric power plant was built there, for 800,000 marks, funded by the government of Silesia. Currently, it is the oldest plant of this kind in Poland, with six J.M.Voith 1906 turbines still working. On the high, left bank of the lake, Czocha Castle is located, and on the right bank, there is the complex of Rajsko Castle. The lake is a popular summer vacation centre, with several campsites and watersports facilities.

Sources

History of the lake

External links

View of the dam from the drone
Lakes of Poland Reservoirs in Poland Lakes of Lower Silesian Voivodeship {{Poland-geo-stub