The Romania Photo of the Day created in partnership with stock photo provider Dreamstime aims to highlight the best of Romania. From stunning landscapes and popular tourist destinations and landmarks to people, traditions, and food, this series helps you discover Romania one photo at a time. This week, we put the focus on Romanian mountain lakes. 

In the heart of the Cheile Nerei-Beușnița National Park, a protected area of national interest located on the southwestern border of Romania, in the southern Anina Mountains in Banat, lies a special oasis. (Photo source - click on the number to get to the photo 102502882 / Lake © Calin Stan | Dreamstime.com) With water so clear you can see fish swimming in it, and so turquoise it reminds you of a precious stone, Ochiul Beiului is a karst lake fed by an underground spring.

Thanks to the spring that feeds it, this lake doesn't freeze in winter, with the water temperature remaining constant all year round at between 4 and 8 degrees Celsius - a characteristic that favors migratory birds such as grey herons and wild ducks to roost here instead of flying elsewhere.

Ochiul Beiului Lake is located in an impressively wild area of the Cheile Nerei - Beusnita National Park, near the Beusnita Falls on the Beu stream, on the border of the Anina Mountains with the Locvei Mountains, at an altitude of 310 meters.

Ochiul Beiului Lake, the waterfalls, the wild surroundings, and the ruins of the nearby medieval fortress Ilidia are some of the most beautiful tourist spots in Banat, identitatea.ro says.

Many stories are told about Ochiul Beiului Lake, which, by some locals, is even thought to be enchanted.

Legend has it that on the night of Sânziene (the Romanian annual celebration of the summer solstice on June 24), the eponymous fairies gather around the lake to dance and sing and rejoice, enchanting all those who see them.

Another legend says that the lake was formed hundreds of years ago, after the son of a famous leader who ruled the land fell madly in love with a shepherd's daughter. According to the legend, so enraptured was he, that he kidnapped her and locked her up in the Great Tower in the Nerei Gorge.

During the night, however, with the help of a rope woven from her own dress, the girl managed to escape and flee to the base of the cliff in the Nerei Valley. This was not to the father's liking, so he ordered the girl killed. Out of such bitterness, the ruler’s son shed so many tears that he filled the lake – which is said to be the color of the young man's eyes. Despairing that the girl could not be brought back to life, the son of the ruler put an end to his life in the same place where she was killed.

It is said that the girl turned into a river - the Beusnita River, and the young man into a lake - Ochiul Beiului.

maia@romania-insider.com