Lake Palić (; ) is a lake from Subotica, near the town of Palić, in Serbia. It covers an area of . The average depth of the lake is . With the surrounding area it forms the protected Nature Park Palić, which covers .
Geology Despite popular belief, Lake Palić is not a remnant of the vast Pannonian Sea which covered this area and completely drained out some 600,000 years ago. It is estimated that both the Palić and Ludoš lakes originated in the early Holocene, around 10,000 years ago, when the last major changes in the surrounding terrain occurred. Prior to that, since the draining of the sea, the European climate was much colder, with the exchange of the cold and dry and the warm and wet periods. Alternatively, being frozen and defrosted, the rocks crushed under the ice and crumbled into the dust, which formed sand and loess. The winds would then disperse the loess into the valleys of the Danube and Tisza rivers to the southeast. On the wet grounds, the loess became more compact, becoming thinner and claylike. The surrounding dried land became more and more elevated thus creating the depressions which began to collect water. The process was helped with the erosion which was caused by the water flowing into the depressions. Due to the unstable hydrological regime, the lake constantly disappeared and reappeared through history.
The lake is shallow, with an average depth of , while the deepest point is . It is long and up to wide. The shoreline is long.
The idea that the lake was remnant of the sea was influenced by its geographical location (in the bed of the former sea) and the fact that the water in the lake was salty. It is more likely that both lakes and the nearby river of Körös-ér are remnants of the former rivers which spilled over the Pannonian basin. Surveys showed that the loess layers are younger than the alluvial ones, so the lakes can't be remains of the former Danube's flow as the wind would naturally cover them with sand and loess.
Human history Popular local legend The popular local legend of the lake's origin, which also explains the name, says that the shepherd Paul (Pal in Hungarian, Pavle in Serbian) was pasturing his sheep in the area. He had a lamb with the Golden Fleece but the lamb disappeared one day, and the inconsolable Paul cried so much that his tears flooded the pasture and created the salty lake. The lake was then named Paligo Palus in Latin, Palics in Hungarian or Pavlova bara in Serbian.
Ancient history The lake was mentioned for the first time in June 1462 when Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus bestowed it to his mother, Queen Mother of Hungary, Erzsébet Szilágyi, as part of the puszta-like Csongrád County. It was mentioned as Palij. In Ottoman inscription from 1580, it was recorded as the village of Palegyhaza in Subotica nahiyah. The writing says the village has 10 houses. and that all pay taxes.
Modern history The first, small park along the lake was planted in 1841–1842, in the English style. The Great Park was projected in 1840, in the baroque, English style. In 1845 the first spa bathroom with wooden baths and an inn were built. Data on the quality of the water originate from 1847 when the first chemical analysis was done. The lake became a spa and the water was used for the soda water production. The mud was considered healing. Hot baths were built in 1852–1854, park and hotel Trščara in 1853 and Old Hotel in 1857. Hotel Park was built in 1860, followed by the Little Inn at Ženski Strand in 1885, Hotel Jezero in 1903, and Great Terrace with water tower in 1909–1912. The was built through the water tower, marking entrance into the Great Park and its main alley which extends to the lake itself, the "prestige, Swiss style" Split Alley, built c.1900. All these structures were declared cultural monuments. Also built were the Summer Stage, designed by Baltazar Dulić, Music Pavilion (in 1910), Abacija cinema (in 1925), and Little Inn. After the railway reached Palić in 1869, the lake spa complex became accessible to all parts of Hungary. The train station was built in 1887, the road to the lake was cobblestoned in 1894, and the tram line was established in 1897.
The town of Palić is located on the northern shores of the lake, where in time parks and hotels developed. As it wasn't allowed at the time for men and women to bath together, the Muški Štrand (Male beach) was formed on the east, and Ženski Štrand (Female beach) on the west. They are divided by the small promontory, which is named Ljubavni Rt (Love Cape). On 15 September 1912, a memorial drinking fountain was dedicated in the park. It originally contained lyrics by the poet Dezső Kosztolányi which were later removed, and the originally envisioned lake fairy on top of the fountain was never placed, with jug with flowers being sculptured instead. There is inscription with short history of Palić.
From 1886 to 1889, the swampy banks were arranged, and the semi-circular embankment with a promenade along the lake was built. In 1898, the hydrotherapy sanatorium was opened. The present appears of both town and the lake spa were designed in the 1910s by the architects Marcell Komor and Dezső Jakab in Hungarian Secession style. The complex project included urban and communal arrangement of the park, building and restoration of the edifices, arrangement of the shoreline, etc. At the coast, there is a monument dedicated to Komor and Jakab.
Lake Palić Hungarian Secession buildings Women's Lido Music pavilion Water tower Kursaal Villa Lujza
From the late 19th and into most of the 20th century, the cyclic development of the overgrowth followed by the fish kill were common. In 1970 the eutrophication reached its peak and almost all the wildlife in the lake died. In 1971 the lake was dried, the sludge was dredged and removed, the filters were placed, and the lake was refilled in 1976, but in the next decades, the lake got polluted again.
After World War II, a settlement made of weekend-houses developed on the eastern shore, south of Muški Štrand. Many houses were built by the state-owned companies which collapsed since the 1990s, so they were left unattended. Known simply as Vikend-Naselje (Weekend-Settlement), but nicknamed Beirut due to its dilapidated appearance, it had 312 houses in 2022, with the total of 380 of houses in the wider area. Demolition began in June 2023, with plans for the new, arranged settlement instead.
In 1936, the Palić weather station became operational. Located at the northeast corner of the lake, it measured the highest temperature on 15 August 1952 (), and the lowest on 16 February 1954 (). The weather station was destroyed in 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, so the new one was built, a bit further to the east.
Since the late 2010s, construction of the pedestrian pathway, which would connect all attractions in the touristic zone along the lake, began. The work was continued in the summer of 2023, after several years of pause. Made of decorative, red bricks, the path will be long.
Olympic games Along the lake, the “first modern Olympic games” were held on 26 August 1880, sixteen years before the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympics. The games included fencing, running, stone throwing, wrestling and bicycle riding around the lake, which became a traditional event. The games were organized by Lajoš Vermeš, a school friend and a roommate of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of modern Olympism. Named the "Palić Olympics", the games became international in 1884 when first athletes from Serbia participated, as the lake was part of Austria Hungary at the time.
Starting in 1891, Vermeš invested into the construction of various sports structures and lodging venues, including the elliptic track, long, with the bleachers, so it was called the Enclosed Arena. He also constructed and paved the bicycle racing track. Investing his own money, Vermeš went bankrupt, and the games were discontinued with the outbreak of the World War I in 1914. Đuro Stantić, who participated in the Palić games, later won a gold medal at 1906 Intercalated Games which were considered a "proper Olympics" at the time.
One of the structures built by Vermeš to accommodate the participants was Villa Bagoljvar, today colloquially called Sovina Kula ("owl tower"). Built as a precursor of the secession style in 1891, it was designed in the Swiss style, with decorative beaver-tail tiles. Referred to as the first Olympic hotel, there is a monument to Vermeš erected next to it.
Wildlife Over 200 bird species live in the protected section of the lake. During the emptying and refilling of the lake in the 1970s, artificial island made of the dried sludge were formed. They became known as the birds' islands and are today the only nesting location of black-headed gull in Serbia. Surrounding shrubs are habitats of some of the most endangered birds in Serbia, like the migrating pygmy cormorant and razorbill. There are also the usual inhabitants like ducks, swans and herons. In 2023 the otter sightings in the lake were reported.
Preservation Legal protection
The lake and the surrounding area are placed under the protection as the Nature Park Palić. In August 2022, the protected area was enlarged by , to the total of . The newly formed green belt along the lake was added, while the protection was stripped of the lots in the urbanized touristic zone, where numerous new structures were planned. New addition also includes part of the lake's shoreline, arranged green areas in the central spa area, so as some specific old trees in the park. Being close to the highly urbanized zone (towns of Palić and Subotica), the protective buffer zone which covers was declared around the nature park, to prevent "strong anthropogenic influences".
The ecological situation in the lake began to sharply deteriorate in the early 2010s. Only in 2015 a spatial plan was finished, which included the area between the lakes Palić and the neighboring Krvavo Lake, which is divided from Palić by a small embankment. The covered area includes on which the lots were enlarged in an effort to make it easier for the construction of the future complex (closed and opened swimming pools, aqua park, hotel complex, etc.) All previous plans also include the revitalization of the Palić Spa. Works on improving the lake area include: removal of all sources which pollute the lake with nitrogen and phosphorus, which effectively kills the lake; construction of the sewage system around the lake; creation of the protective buffer zone which would prevent the nutrients from the arable land in the vicinity to reach the lake; replacement of the fish species in the lake; tightened regime of the purifying sewage water from Subotica, which still empties into the lake. Some of the experimental works on a small section of the lake which is not opened for tourists showed some success, but as of 2017 everything is still just at the planning stage. Expropriation of the surrounding land is expected to be finished by the end of 2017 which would allow the formation of the buffer zone and the sewage in the town of Palić was to be done by 2018.