Zwenkauer See

The Zwenkauer See is the largest lake in the Neuseenland situated south of Leipzig. It is on the site of a former lignite open cast mine. Zwenkauer See was opened for tourist use on 9 May 2015.

Location and shape

Both Leipzig and Zwenkau have parts of the lake area. The shortest distance to Lake Cospuden to the north is about. The Bundesautobahn 38 runs between the two lakes. To the north of this is the Belantis amusement park.
The lake runs east of Zwenkau for about in a roughly north-south direction with a width of around, then turns west after a northeast bulge, widening to, and opens up to form an approximate triangle with an edge length of.
Since 2011, at the southern shore of the lake, at Kap Zwenkau, a new urban borough was built. Terraced mixed-use and residential areas are lined up around the new sailing and water sports harbor. The circular path around the lake for walking and cycling is roughly long.

History

In 1921, the Böhlen open-cast mine was opened and lignite mining began. Year after year, the miners moved closer to Zwenkau with their heavy equipment. In 1965, the Böhlen opencast mine officially became the Zwenkau opencast mine. After 580 million tons of lignite had been extracted, the last coal train left the Zwenkau open-cast mine in 1999, and remediation could begin. The former open-cast mine has been flooded since 2007 and reached its provisional final water level in 2015.