Lake Pleshcheyevo

Pleshcheyevo is a near-circular glacial lake of about fifty square kilometres beside Pereslavl-Zalessky, one of the Golden Ring towns, and it holds two things worth the trip. On the north-eastern shore lies the Sinny Kamen, the Blue Stone: a twelve-tonne glacial erratic of blue-grey quartzite that was a cult object of the pre-Christian Merya people and then of the Slavs, which the church repeatedly tried to destroy - it was buried, and it worked its way back to the surface; it was hauled onto a sledge to be built into a church foundation, went through the ice of the lake, and reappeared on the shore years later. People still leave coins and ribbons on it. On the southern shore is the boathouse holding what survives of Peter I's toy flotilla, built here in the 1690s, which is generally treated as the origin of the Russian navy.

History

The Primary Chronicle names the Lake of Kleshchin, after a Meryan town on its shore, and its great relic is the twelve-ton Blue Stone, once worshipped by pagans. In 1688-1693 Peter the Great built his training flotilla on the lake, and in 1925 the writer Mikhail Prishvin spent a year at a research station nearby, writing The Springs of Berendey (Wikipedia, Lake Pleshcheyevo).

What's there

• The Blue Stone - a twelve-tonne erratic that resisted repeated attempts to remove it.
• The offerings - coins and ribbons still left on it by visitors.
• The boathouse - what survives of the flotilla Peter I built here in the 1690s.
• The lake - a near-circular glacial basin of about fifty square kilometres.

When to go

May to September for the shore and boating; winter brings ice fishing and kitesurfing. A day, combined with Pereslavl's monasteries.

What to expect

The Blue Stone has sunk substantially into the ground over the decades and is smaller above the surface than photographs suggest. A boardwalk and fee were added and the site is commercialised. Mosquitoes in summer. The lake is shallow and warms unevenly.

Nearby

Pereslavl-Zalessky's monasteries are around the town; Rostov Veliky is north.

Key facts