Lake Prespa: A Greek Eco Park Steeped in History

View of Great Prespa Lake. Credit Greek Reporter

Greece’s Lake Prespa National Park is simply a spot wherever nature, culture, and past harvester to make a fascinating destination for visitors of each ages.

Located astatine the bluish extremity of the Pindos upland range, the Prespa Lake system— comprised of Great Prespa and Little (or Lesser) Prespa—is a spot wherever 3 countries meet.

Great Prespa Lake is divided betwixt Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia portion Little Prespa Lake is mostly wrong Greek territory.

The drought that affects Greece and the Balkans has shrunk the lakes, which stay among the largest bodies of h2o successful the Balkans and are besides among the oldest successful the world.

Prespa and Prespa National Park beryllium to the Prefecture of Florina. Covering an country of 330 sq. km, Prespa has thirteen villages inhabited by astir 1,300 people, each linked to the lake.

A spot of unsocial geography and history

The fauna and flora of the area, on with the geography and climate, marque Prespa a unsocial place, with an arsenic unsocial and agelong history.

The earliest archaeological findings astir Lake Prespa amusement that radical lived determination successful the Bronze and Iron Ages.

From the aboriginal 5th century, the Lake Prespa country was ruled by the Macedonian kings and their successors until 200 BC.

Buildings and graves from the Roman and aboriginal Christian periods archer precise small astir beingness astatine that time. However, from the extremity of the 9th century, Prespa came nether the regularisation of Bulgarian King Simeon.

That marked the opening of the Byzantine Empire and Simeon of Bulgaria’s regularisation of the country until the extremity of the 10th century, erstwhile Samuel became Czar of the Bulgarians.

Prespa, and aboriginal Ochrid, became the halfway of Samuel’s kingdom, and from there, helium launched operations against the Byzantines.

Samuel raised palaces and a basilica successful Prespa, wherever helium brought the remains of Agios Achilleios, the patron saint of the municipality of Larissa.

The Bulgarian Czar’s wars against Byzantium ended erstwhile Emperor Basil II, aboriginal known arsenic the “Bulgar Slayer,” defeated Samuel and recaptured the territory.

From the autumn of the Byzantine Empire successful 1453 and on, the country was taken implicit by the Ottomans.

However, owed to the remoteness of the region, Prespa was not affected by Ottoman regularisation arsenic overmuch arsenic municipality areas were, and was near to beryllium controlled by section leaders.

From the mediate of the 19th period and onward, however, some Bulgarians and Greeks tried to emancipate themselves from the Ottomans.

During the Macedonian Struggle and astatine the opening of the 20th century, galore Prespiots emigrated to America, Canada, and Romania.

The Balkan Wars (1912-1913) that followed were concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest that acceptable today’s borders successful the area.

View of Lake Prespa. Credit: Greek Reporter

The lakes’ uncommon ecosystem

Great and Lesser Prespa Lakes were erstwhile a azygous lake, but thousands of years agone sediment carried by Agios Germanos River accumulated and created an isthmus betwixt the lakes.

A transmission astatine Koula connects the 2 lakes and a sluice gross controls the travel from Lesser Prespa to Great Prespa.

About ninety percent of the 47.4 km2  (18 quadrate miles) of the Lesser Prespa’s aboveground country belongs to Greece portion Greater Prespa (with an country of 259.4 km2 oregon 100 quadrate miles) is shared by Greece, Albania and North Macedonia (previously known arsenic FYROM) with 176.3 km2 (68 quadrate miles) belonging to the latter.

Lesser Prespa Lake is protected by the RAMSAR Convention arsenic 1 of Greece’s 10 “Wetlands of International Importance” and is 1 of the halfway areas of the full Prespa National Park.

Lake Prespa’s value lies successful the exceptional biodiversity of its marshes. These are areas astir the water with a shallow incline and debased aquatic vegetation which are flooded seasonally by the fluctuating h2o level.

These marshes signifier a important situation for galore taxon of birds and tiny animals, providing structure and food.

They besides supply breeding and overwintering areas for a wide scope of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and insects that would not past successful different parts of the world, arsenic they are susceptible and threatened.

Lesser Prespa Lake is the largest breeding colony of Dalmatian pelicans and Greece’s lone breeding colonies of greylag geese.

A Dalmatian Pelican implicit Lake Prespa. Credit: ImogenX/Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0

An astonishing diverseness of habitats

The portion hosts an astonishing diverseness of habitats from sandy and rocky coastal formations to grasslands and shrublands, with a full of 1,800 taxon of plants.

Lake Prespa is truthful important due to the fact that it hosts astir one-third of the full works taxon successful Greece and astir fractional of the full fig of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds.

The unsocial geological and climatic characteristics of the water country let endemic taxon to evolve, arsenic good arsenic taxon with a precise constrictive geographic scope successful Greece and the Balkans.

Important taxon of mammals, specified arsenic the brownish bear, wolf, roe deer, European hare, boar, European wildcat, and chamois, are recovered connected the upland slopes astir the 2 lakes.

The country besides boasts 26 taxon of bats retired of a full 45 taxon successful the full of Europe. There are besides 23 taxon of fish, 8 of which are endemic successful the lakes.

The flora of Lake Prespa includes respective protected species—amongst them galore plants autochthonal to the Balkans.

10th-century Agios Achilleios Basilica connected the islet of Agios Achilleios. Credit: Greek Reporter

Places to sojourn astir Lake Prespa

Agios Achilleios is simply a tiny land connected to the mainland by a floating bridge. Its Agios Georgios chapel with 15th-century frescoes serves arsenic the tiny assemblage cemetery.

The item of this tiny land is the ruins of the Agios Achilleios Basilica built by Czar Samuel successful the 10th century.

Agios Germanos is simply a accepted colony with galore houses retaining the traditional, section architectural style. The Byzantine religion of the aforesaid sanction dates to the opening of the 11th century.

Kale Hill offers a panoramic presumption implicit Lesser Prespa. It took its sanction from French troops successful World War I due to the fact that it reminded them of the English Channel.

The enactment of Great Prespa Lake possesses galore stretches wherever 1 tin swim. Koula Beach is 1 of them. It is besides large for a picnic, during which you tin ticker pelicans and herons flying from Lesser Prespa to provender successful Great Prespa Lake.

The colony of Psarades connected the enactment of Lesser Prespa Lake is afloat of restaurants offering caller water food and section delicacies, specified arsenic the celebrated Prespa beans, saccharine reddish peppers, and tiny dried fish. Small boats besides connection tours connected the lake.

In Psarades, connected June 17, 2018, erstwhile Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras signed the Prespa Agreement with his Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) counterpart, Zoran Zaev.

The woody to telephone the state The Republic of North Macedonia enactment an extremity to a agelong quality implicit the sanction of Greece’s bluish neighbor.