The Kulkwitzer See (Lake Kulkwitz), colloquially called Kulki, is a

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 ...

in the western part of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The lake is a part of the

Central German Lake District The Central German Lake District (''German:'' Mitteldeutsches Seenland) is a group of artificial lakes that are the result of extensive open pit lignite mining. The area around Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous ci ...

. ''Kulkwitzer See'' emerged from two former

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

opencast mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...

areas southwest of

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

. Coal was mined here from 1864, first underground and from 1937 in opencast mining. The two remaining opencast mines were flooded from 1963 and opened in 1973 as a local

recreation area A recreation area is a type of protected area designated in some jurisdictions. By country Canada In the province of British Columbia, recreation areas are lands set aside for recreational use. These lands are also being evaluated to determine w ...

Location

The lake is located east of

Markranstädt Markranstädt () is a town in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km southwest of the city of Leipzig and has close to 15,000 inhabitants. Geography Location Markranstädt is located about south-west of Leipzig ci ...

, north of the former village of ''Göhrenz'', 1999 incorporated as a neighborhood into ''Markranstädt'', south of the former village of ''Miltitz'', 1999 incorporated as a neighborhood into Leipzig, and west of Grünau and Lausen, both parts of Leipzig. It is named after the former village of ''Kulkwitz'', which became a neighborhood of Markranstädt in 1999.

Tourist facilities

There are substantial tourist facilities: several bathing beaches - on the western shore also one suitable for the

disabled Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physica ...

, a circular hiking

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Ho ...

, a ship

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

, the restaurant Rotes Haus (in English: Red House, formerly the control center of the opencast mine) and other restaurants and

snack bar A snack bar usually refers to an inexpensive food counter that is part of a permanent structure where snack foods and light meals are sold. Description A beach snack bar is often a small building situated high on the sand. Besides soft drink ...

s, a

camping site Campsite, campground, and camping pitch are all related terms regarding a place used for camping (an overnight stay in an outdoor area). The usage differs between British English and American English. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an ...

, a

sauna A sauna (, ) is a room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a sauna is used to meas ...

, a

high ropes course A ropes course is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high elements, low elements, or some combination of the two. Low elements take place on the ground or above the ground. High elem ...

, a sledding hill,

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

, boating and surfing opportunities. In 2018, the

cycle path A bike path or a cycle path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "C ...

around the lake was handed over. KulkwitzerSeeL-M

Together with bathers,

angler Angler may refer to: * A fisherman who uses the fishing technique of angling * Angler (video game), ''Angler'' (video game) * Angler (restaurant), a seafood restaurant in San Francisco, California * The angler, ''Lophius piscatorius'', a monkfish ...

s and surfers, around 500,000 visitors visit Lake Kulkwitz every year.

Operation

From 1993 until 2021, the lake has been operated in the responsibility of the "Zweckverband Kulkwitzer See" association. At last, two cities belonged to this association – Leipzig and Markranstädt. The chairman was the respective

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Markranstädt. In 2003, the association outsourced the operation of the lake to an external private business agency - ''LeipzigSeen GmbH'' based in Leipzig.

Underwater diving and sports events

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

and

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

events, lake festivals and other sporting events have also been held here since the 1970s. Due to its underwater flora and fauna and its good depth of visibility, the lake is applied one of the ten best diving waters in Germany and attracts around 35,000 overnight stays from tourists, mainly divers from all over

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. There are several underwater hotspots especially for divers. A small chapel, an airplane wreck and a set up scaffolding that were formerly sunk by the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

for training purposes. The Kulkwitzer See is home to various types of fish such as

perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

, pike,

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

, roach,

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

, ruff and

tench The tench or doctor fish (''Tinca tinca'') is a freshwater, fresh- and brackish water, brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including Great Britain, Britain and Ireland east into Asia as far ...

Traffic

The ''Kulkwitzer See'' is easily accessible by

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

: * Terminus "Lausen" of the

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

* Terminus of the

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

"Miltitzer Allee" * as well as bus routes.

Bundesstraße 87 The Bundesstraße 87 (Abbreviation: B 87) is a Bundesstraße in Germany. It begins in Ilmenau and ends in Frankfurt (Oder). In Thüringia it runs partly along the Straße der Romanik. History Origin The modern-day Bundesstraße 87 ha ...

runs on the north side of the lake. Parking spaces, some of which are subject to a fee,Auf der Straße der Braunkohle (2003), p. 125 are connected to the Bundesstrasse both on the Markranstadt side and on the Leipzig side. On the route of the former railway line, which touches the ''Kulkwitzer See'' in the southeast, the ''Elster-Saale cycle path'' was laid out, which connects the ''

Elster Elster may refer to: Places * Black Elster (''Schwarze Elster''), a river in Germany * White Elster (''Weiße Elster''), a river in Germany and the Czech Republic ** Elster Viaduct, a railway bridge over the White Elster ** Elster Viaduct (Pirk ...

cycle path'' with the ''Saale cycle path''.

Literature

* Kulturbund der DDR, Gesellschaft für Heimatgeschichte Leipzig (Hrsg.), ''Historisches rund um Grünau'', Leipzig 1988 (in German) * Thomas Herles, Lutz Schiffer: ''Bergbaurestseen in Mitteldeutschland. Seenkompass.'' Campus Espenhain GmbH und Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Chemnitz/Espenhain 2002 (in German) * Dachverein Mitteldeutsche Straße der Braunkohle e.V. and Pro Leipzig (ed.), ''Auf der Straße der Braunkohle'', Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-936508-98-4, pp. 125-127 (in German) * Dieter Florian, ''Der Kulkwitzer See, ein Tauchparadies im Leipziger Westen'', in: Leipziger Blätter, Sonderausgabe Mitteldeutsche Seenlandschaft, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-938543-35-1, S. 54-56 (in German) * Horst Riedel: ''Kulkwitzer See.'' In: ''Stadtlexikon Leipzig von A bis Z.'' ''PRO'' LEIPZIG, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-936508-82-6, p. 326 (in German)

External links

European lakes

Lake Kulkwitz at the web page of LeipzigSeen GmbH

References

{{reflist Lakes of Saxony LKulkwitzer See LKulkwitzerSee Geography of Leipzig Tourist attractions in Leipzig