Description
Lake Drūkšiai is a natural area of European importance. The lake and its shores lie at the very edge of Lithuania, in its north-eastern part, where the Zarasai and Ignalina districts and Visaginas municipality meet, right against the national border. Drūkšiai is a transboundary body of water crossed by the Lithuanian–Belarusian border. About 700 ha of it belongs to Belarus, 728 ha to the Ignalina district and as much as 3,498 ha to the Zarasai district. The vegetation of Drūkšiai and its shores is very diverse: in the Lithuanian part of the lakeside there are habitats of four types of grassland and two types of wetland protected by the European Union and listed in the EU Habitats Directive. The greatest natural value lies in plant habitats of European importance: species-rich steppe meadows, Molinia meadows – small habitats with purple moor-grass – and alluvial meadows, which form a complex with other grassland habitats. At the beginning of the 14th century, when the Polotsk lands were incorporated into the Lithuanian state, a Lithuanian garrison settled in the castle on an island in Lake Drūkšiai. Three towers, dwellings and a church (1514) were built here, and the island was connected to the shores by two wooden pile bridges, one of which led towards the town of Drūkšiai. By 1622 the castle was badly neglected – the tower roofs had rotted and collapsed, the walls were crumbling and only one small cannon remained – but there was still a fine, well-kept manor on the island. In 1655 the Swedes marching through the area easily captured the castle and destroyed it completely. Today the island lies in the Belarusian part of the lake, near the town of Drūkšiai (Drysviaty). Interestingly, in the spring of 1904, duck hunters wading through the flooded Lake Drūkšiai found a record-sized pike stranded in the shallows that weighed as much as 76 kilograms!
