Nesamovyte is one of the highest alpine lakes in the Ukrainian Carpathians, sitting at 1750 m above sea level in a glacial cirque on the eastern slopes of Mount Turkul in the Chornohora massif. Small, wild, and steeped in legend, it is the kind of place that stays with you long after you have left the mountains.
The lake itself is modest in size — 88 m long and 45 m wide — but its setting is spectacular. Rocky outcrops frame the southern and western shores, while the opposite bank rises gently along a glacial moraine carpeted with subalpine meadows, dwarf pine and juniper. The water is dark and still, and in late summer almost 40% of the lake bed is covered by a floating mat of sedge and sphagnum moss, giving it an almost primeval atmosphere. There are no fish here, but the lake is home to rare amphibians including the Dalmatian frog (listed in Ukraine's Red Book), the Carpathian newt and the Alpine newt. The lake freezes in winter and is fed mainly by atmospheric precipitation, with small streams draining below the moraine toward the Prut river.
How to get thereLocal Hutsul legend holds that throwing a stone into Nesamovyte — or daring to swim in it — will instantly bring rain and storms over Chornohora. Even the writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was captivated by the tale, calling the lake the 'sea eye of the mountains' in his novella 'The Robber'.