Kosanin lakes are two lakes, small and large, in the form of an ellipse, at about 900 meters above sea level. They are on Jelak, in a bay on the north side of Crepuljnik.
They were named after famous Serbian botanist Nedeljko Kosanin, who was born in this area. They are located in the basin of Studenica. These lakes can be reached by asphalt road from Ivanjica to Pridvorica (about 25 km), where it turns east and continues through the forest six kilometers long, which is not suitable for passenger cars. Near by these lakes is Pridvorica monastery, on the road that leads to the monastery Studenica.
An interesting phenomenon is related to this lake: On rainy days the water level in the lake drops, and when the weather is sunny – the water level gets higher. Legend says that the fairies gathered and danced around the lake and that every sod on the big lake represents one fairy. Vilino kolo (Fairy’s dance) is a circle in the grass, with specific color, different from the vegetation that surrounds Kosanin’s lake. When you can see “Vilino kolo” in the pasture, it’s a sure sign that the night before, the mountain fairies gathered and played until the first sun rays. If a young man or a reckless girl stepped in the grass sign, fairies would have taken their sanity and in short time their life too. In case when cows or sheeps step on this particular spot their milk would cease.
Big lake is overgrown with vegetation and only small parts of the lake are under water, with peripheral parts covered in forest. Kosanin’s lake (big lake) extends in east-west. Its length is about 180 m and almost 100 m width. To the west it slops slightly, so it creates impression that it’s composed of two parts. Around the lake are mainly beech, fir and spruce woods, and pine trees on the south side. Big Lake essentially represents specific plant formation, because in this peat largely settles Carex paniculata – greater tussock-sedge. This plant has formed a large and high-drilled sods, so they look like some kind of seats. In early spring all the drilled sods look like flawless seats as the last leaves are dried and subsided. At a time when the peat becomes green the sods are touching each other and in some places the lake looks like a meadow. In the creation of peat there is also moss. On many sods there are birch or spruce trees, which act as half-parasites.
West from the big lake, behind a small ridge, there is a smaller lake. Little Kosanin’s lake is a water surface that empties relatively fast. Due to the fact that the small lake is few meters higher than the large lake, the water occasionally flows in the large lake by a side channel, in a distance of thirty meters. The small lake is in a length of 90 meters with a total surface of 29 acres, elongated in shape, with a depth of about 7 meters. Based on the fact that the frogs are found only in the upper part of the lake, the researchers (B. Matijevic and M. Gajic) found that the water in the lower part of the Kosanin’s lake is salty.
Translation to English : Biljana Vidoevska