Lake Plescheyevo is a natural gem of Central Russia. It is one of the biggest lakes in the upper Volga region. It is mentioned in the earliest annals as “Kleshino”, the name is believed to be derived from the verb “Kleskat’” (old Russian for splash) or the name Klesch (old Russian for bream, since the lake used to be abundant in this kind of fish). The lake is fed by numerous rivers and rivulets, the biggest of them is the Trubezh river. Only one river, Vioksa, streams out of the lake and connects it through a chain of water basins with the Volga river. The sandy and partially muddy bottom of the lake forms an oval-shaped bowl — shallow near the banks and reaching 25 meters in the center. The actual size of the lake is about 6.7 by 9.7 kilometers (approx. four by six miles). It is the breeding place for a number of species, including pike, burbot, bream and many smaller ones. One of its inhabitants, a rare species of lake herring (lat.: Coregonus),is shown on the city’s coat of arms. In the court’s festive meals of the 14th–17th centuries it was traditionally served as the closing course in sign of the voluntary annexation of Pereslavl by Moscow. The length of the “royal herring” used to reach half a meter (1’9”) but over the centuries because of the changing environmental conditions it has shrunk by more than a half compared to its original size.
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The Land of Pereslavl
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