Serbia · Vojvodina

Rusanda

Directions

Русанда

Lake Rusanda is a highly saline, shallow soda lake at Melenci, near Zrenjanin in Vojvodina, at an elevation of 82 m. It covers about 4 km² and is divided into the larger Velika Rusanda and the smaller Mala Rusanda, separated by an asphalt road. Healing mud from its bottom has been used for treatments since at least the 1760s, against muscle inflammation, rheumatism and gout, and the spa town of Rusanda was established beside it in 1867. The lake is one of only three localities in Serbia where a plant of salt soils, Suaeda pannonica, has been confirmed. In August 2017 it dried out completely, which raised fears for the local population, agriculture and the many bird species living in the area.

How it formed

The lake is probably a fossil bed of the Tisa, though some have seen in it a last remnant of the Pannonian Sea. It dries up now and then without lasting harm to the ecosystem, as hydrologists said after 2017; dry summers and changes in groundwater from the Danube–Tisa–Danube canal are possible causes.

Nature

About 200 bird species live in the lake area. Curlews, whimbrels, avocets, black-winged stilts and golden plovers feed on the salt flats on migration, bearded reedlings and great reed warblers keep to the reeds, and red-footed falcons breed in the spa park.

Gallery

3 photos

Photo: Stebunik · CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Nikolam993 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Visit

Getting there

Nearest settlement: Melenci

Swimming

No reliable information

Tips

At the north exit of Melenci, turn left towards the Rusanda Spa. The “Rusanda” special rehabilitation hospital uses the lake’s mud, which workers still collect by boat in the traditional way, and the spa park, with flower beds, benches and paths, is a pleasant place for a walk in the early morning or late afternoon.

There are two observation towers, one on the shore near the spa buildings and one at the far north-western edge of the lake; spring and autumn migration are the best times, and a telescope helps. In summer the lake can shrink so far that the salt mud looks walkable, but unexploded Second World War bombs are known to lie at two places in the lake, so stay off the mud flats.