Great lakes destinations
Explore the residence sites around the Great European lakes - Vänern, Balaton and Ohrid Lake
Lake Vänern in Sweden
Location:
Southern Sweden (counties of Västra Götaland, Värmland, and Dalsland)
Dimensions:
Length: 140 km
Width: 75 Km
Average Depth:
27 meters
Max: 106 meters
Climate:
Temperate oceanic, with mild Winters and cool summers, Influenced by the lake's large surface. The local microclimate helps agriculture and wildlife thrive.
Overview
Vänern is the largest lake in both Sweden and the European Union, covering 5,650 km². It holds around 153 cubic kilometers of fresh water, making it crucial for drinking water, biodiversity, and the local economy. With over 22,000 islands and a shoreline of 2,000 km, the lake has played an important role in shaping the region's landscape and communities, supporting shipping, fishing, recreation, tourism, artistic life and ecosystems.
Ecological Importance
Vänern is a diverse ecosystem with a rich variety of plant and animal life. It provides a unique habitat for many species, including:
Fish Species:
(Over 35 native types), such as landlocked salmon (one of Europe's last self- reproducing freshwater populations), northern pike, perch, whitefish, and zander.
Endemic and rare species:
Like charophytes (stonewort algae), which help oxygenate the water and provide essential nursery habitats for young fish.
Freshwater mussels and invertebrates
in the shallow bays and wetlands.
The lake’s wetlands are critical as they act as natural filters, breeding grounds, and stopovers for migrating birds, making the area a biodiversity hotspot. Vänern is part of the Natura 2000 Network, which is an EU initiative aimed at protecting biodiversity across Europe.
Environmental Challenges
However, the lake faces increasing pressure due to climate change, which is causing rising temperatures, unpredictable weather, droughts, and flooding. These changes affect fish migration and breeding cycles. Additionally, water quality issues, such as eutrophication (excessive nutrients leading to algae blooms), threaten the local ecosystem. Efforts to improve water treatment and preserve surrounding wetlands
are vital to maintaining the lake's health.
Cultural and Historical Significance
Vänern has long been central to the region’s cultural development. The lake’s strategic location facilitated trade, with goods like timber, grain, and iron being transported by boat. Historically, the lake was a crucial route for trade during the Viking Age, connecting inland Scandinavia with coastal ports.
Key historical points include:
  • Trade routes since the Viking Age, with goods like timber, grain, furs and iron.
  • Ancient settlements, castle ruins, and harbor structures still visible along the shores.
  • Art and folklore: The lake has inspired countless songs, paintings, and stories throughout Swedish history.
Today, Vänern is still an important part of Sweden, where history, nature and culture come together in the landscape around the lake.
Lidköping by Lake Vänern
where history, craft, and contemporary creativity meet
Lake Vänern is the largest lake in both Sweden and the European Union, covering an area of 5,650 km². It is a vital natural resource with rich biodiversity and has historically played a key role in trade, shipping and fishing.
Lidköping is placed on the southern shore of Vänern and the presence of the lake is reflected in everything from its historical development to today’s cultural expressions. For generations, people here have lived and worked in close interaction with the water, the landscape and local materials. It is a place where history remains visible in daily life, while new forms of creative practice are emerging.
From trade and porcelain to today’s creative centre
Since the Middle Ages, Lidköping has been an important trading hub along Vänern. Thanks to the lake’s role as a transport route, the town became a centre for commerce and craftsmanship. In the 18th century, the porcelain manufacturer Rörstrand was established – one of Europe’s oldest porcelain brands – shaping lidköping’s identity for more than two centuries.
Today, the former industrial area has been transformed and now features a mix of culture and creativity. It houses, among other things, the Rörstrand Museum, which offers visitors a journey through design history, materials and working life in the former factory. The area also features Porslinsfabriken, where small-scale porcelain production continues, Formfabriken, which trains the next generation of ceramicists, as well as shops dedicated to artisanal craft and design.
Culture in relation to nature
Vänern’s vastness, light, and proximity continue to influence cultural expression in Lidköping. The surrounding landscape offers both inspiration and raw materials for local creators. There is a growing interest in place-based culture, reuse, natural materials, and long-term methods of working.
The town is also home to Vänermuseet – a regional knowledge centre exploring the lake’s ecology, history, and significance in human life. Through exhibitions and public events, the museum serves as a bridge between natural sciences and cultural history.
A place for contemporary life rooted in history
In Lidköping, past and future meet. The town’s heritage of craft and production has laid the foundation for a new generation of creative actors. New forms of place-based culture are taking shape here – rooted in tradition, but with a forward-looking perspective. Vänern remains central in this context: a lake that shapes not only the landscape, but also people’s ideas, stories, and creative expression.
Living Waters of Lake Balaton
Location:
Western Hungary
Dimensions:
Length: 77 km
Width: up to 14 km
Average Depth:
3.2 meters
Max: 12.2 meters
Climate:
Continental, moderated by the lake’s presence. This creates a mild microclimate ideal for viticulture and biodiversity.
Overview:
Lake Balaton is Central Europe’s largest freshwater lake. Spanning approximately 594 km², it has long been a meeting place of nature and culture. Formed by tectonic and volcanic activity, its mineral-rich soils, gentle microclimate, and shallow, shifting waters have nurtured vibrant ecosystems and rich human histories for over two thousand years. Today, it remains a living landscape - resilient yet fragile - where the rhythms of water, wind, and life invite careful listening and creative response.
Ecological Significance:
The lake’s reed belts serve as shelter for countless species, including:
Native fish:
Pike-perch (Sander lucioperca), common bream, weather loach (Misgurnus fossilis)
Rare aquatic flora:
Chara tomentosa (a threatened stonewort), submerged macrophyte meadows
Birdlife:
Great egret, Eurasian bittern, purple heron, and migratory flocks resting and feeding at the lake
Kis-Balaton Water Protection System:
launched in the 1980s, has become a landmark in ecological engineering, improving nutrient management and wetland restoration.
Current Threats:
Despite restoration efforts, the lake faces mounting pressures:
  • Cyanobacterial (blue-green algae) blooms driven by heatwaves and nutrient runoff
  • Invasive species such as zebra mussels and non-native predatory fish disrupting food chains
  • Fluctuating water levels due to extreme weather, resulting in both drought and flooding
  • Tourism pressure: over 2 million annual visitors contribute to shoreline degradation
Cultural Heritage & Inspiration:
From Roman settlements to medieval trade routes, from centuries-old viticulture to folk traditions, Lake Balaton has always been a cultural nexus. Today, it draws artists, designers, and makers not just for its beauty, but for its layered histories and ecological rhythms.
Residency Invitation:
This residency invites participants to live and create in close proximity to the lake’s ecosystem. It is a call to observe, reflect, and co-shape new narratives of ecological imagination. Here, creative practice becomes a form of listening and care—engaging with materials, with traditional and contemporary crafts, and with the lake’s silent, shifting story.
BARNAG
Creative Retreat in the Heart of Balaton Uplands
The Balaton Uplands is a landscape rich in natural treasures and cultural diversity, inhabited for thousands of years. In recent decades, accelerating changes in land use and climate, have significantly transformed the region's fragile ecological systems.

The MediCina Valley together with the neighbouring Cold Mountain Shelter and its surrounding neighbourhood are experimenting with a voluntarily chosen, simple lifestyle that collaborates with nature. We believe this approach offers important solutions in our rapidly changing environment. The families living here strive to create a life where harmony and cooperation—with nature and with one another—are fundamental values. We cultivate the land using methods and tools that prioritize ecological considerations, resulting in a diverse land-use system that integrates orchards, gardens, and domestic animals in a complex and interconnected way. We collect rainwater, use composting toilets, and our electricity comes from solar panels. This lifestyle is aligned with ancient, traditional landscape practices, offering a constructive response to today’s climatic challenges and the loss of
environmental values. We regularly organize knowledge-sharing programs and host individual and group volunteers who find inspiration in our work.

Creativity is a key component of this experiment, as old solutions cannot simply be transplanted into these altered conditions. We invite artists and designers who are inspired by this lifestyle experiment and are eager to think and create together with the local community. Their creations may relate to the practical aspects of land use or this lifestyle, leading to the development of new tools and solutions that support the challenges of everyday life. They may also explore the cultural dimensions of a nature-aligned way of living or contribute to the spiritual work that is also a vital part of our experiment—just as traditional herders in the region once carved sacred symbols into their everyday objects.

During the residency, participants live and create in simple conditions, either in a yurt or a stone house, experiencing this lifestyle first-hand and drawing inspiration from it in their creative work.
Create with the Ancient Waters of lake ohrid
Location:
North Macedonia-Albania
Dimensions:
Length: 30.4 km
Width: up to 14.8 km
Average Depth:
155 meters
Max: 288 meters
Climate:
Continental-Mediterranean, moderated by the lake’s depth and altitude; cool summers, mild winters, and stable temperatures supporting unique biodiversity
Overview
Estimated to be 2 million years old, Ohrid Lake is among few ancient lakes on Earth, offering unique insight into evolutionary biology. Its waters, home to unique species found nowhere else on Earth, have nourished civilizations, from the earliest human settlements to the flourishing communities of artisans, traders, and scholars that once thrived on its shores.
Ecological Importance
Ohrid Lake is a home to over 200 endemic species, including:
The Ohrid trout
(Salmo letnica)
The Ohrid sponge
(Ochridaspongia rotunda), one of the world’s few freshwater sponges
Endemic
snails, crustaceans, and unique plankton communities
Reed belts
and underwater springs create distinct microhabitats that sustain this biodiversity.
Cultural and Historical Significance
Since the beginnings of the human civilization, Ohrid region has been a crossroad of culture and world civilizations with layers from archaic periods such as the Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empire eras. These influences continue to shape the multicultural life of the lake shore today. The lake’s shores once echoed with the sounds of woodcarvers, weavers, and jewellers, whose craftsmanship shaped the region’s identity. Frescoes and mosaics present on the sites, archaeological findings, such as ceramics, jewellery, weapons and domestic artefacts, golden masks and other ritual relics, testify to the ingenuity and mastery of the people who inhabited the lakeshores for around 8 000 years.
  • Early settlements date back to the Neolithic period. The oldest settlement in European Continent is discovered in the waters of the Ohrid Lake, in Lin, Albania, dating back to 6500 (BCE)
  • The city of Ohrid was once a regional center of literacy, home to the first Slavic university (9th century)
  • Today the region is a cultural and touristic center hosting many cultural events among which internationally renowned events such as: the Ohrid Summer Festival and the Struga Poetry Evenings.
The city of Ohrid itself, with its ancient churches and monuments, was a pillar of scholarship and spirituality, earning the title of "Jerusalem of the Balkans". Reach in biodiversity and cultural layers Ohrid region is enlisted as UNESCO World Heritage Site for both, culture and nature.
Environmental Challenges
However, in modern times, Ohrid Lake faces profound ecological and cultural challenges. Rapid urbanization, uncontrolled tourism, and industrial development have placed immense pressure on its fragile ecosystem. Climate change is amplifying these threats, affecting the lake’s water levels, temperature, and seasonal cycles, all of which disrupt the habitat of its endemic species.
Ecological threats include:
  • Urban sprawl and uncontrolled tourism jeopardize habitats.
  • Climate change altering water levels and temperature, disrupting spawning cycles and food chains.
  • Pollution from waste and uncontrolled urban development of the shore contributes to eutrophication and biodiversity loss.
These issues affect delicate and ancient biotope, placing endemic species like the Ohrid trout and Ohrid
sponge at risk of extinction. These species, once symbols of the lake’s pristine ecology, now face the real danger of extinction.
Cultural erosion is also a growing concern:.
  • Traditional knowledge and crafts, risk being forgotten in the face of global consumer trends and economic shifts.
  • Heritage sites face degradation in the absence of sustainable conservation efforts.
Residency Invitation
We invite artists, researchers, and makers to engage with this living landscape — to explore its timeless natural beauty and its modern struggles. Participants are encouraged to respond creatively to the environmental and cultural issues shaping this pivotal moment in Ohrid’s story. By reconnecting with the lake’s ancient rhythms and its people’s enduring craftsmanship, we aim to inspire new solutions for preserving this UNESCO treasure, both ecologically and culturally.
Let’s Imagine together new forms of creative stewardship and ecological empathy.
Struga
A Crossroad of Culture, Nature, and Creativity
Nestled on the shores of Lake Ohrid, Struga is a town where history, nature, and creativity intertwine in a vibrant and ever-evolving narrative. Known for its stunning natural beauty, Struga offers a unique blend of lush landscapes, rich history and a dynamic cultural scene.
The Black Drim River, which flows through the heart of the town, has long inspired poets, artists, and musicians — reflecting the continuous stream of creativity that pulses through Struga today.
Struga’s cultural significance is deeply rooted in its role as a trading and intellectual center of the region. As part of the ancient civilization surrounding Lake Ohrid, the town has witnessed the rises and falls, each leaving mark to its cultural and historical layers; has witnessed blossoming and falls of artisticand intellectual life.
Struga in the past was settled on the wide wetland area, and its inhabitants were suffering deadly malaria. In 1924 Rusian doctor Nikola Nezlobinski, with the mission to erase the disease, together with his team of engineers has led drainage operations, changing the infrastructure and urban modernization of Struga. During his mission in Struga, Nezlobinski has preserved thousands of fauna spices that inhabited the lake wetlands and the surrounding mountains. They can be seen in scientific and natural museum in Struga.
The town is home to the renowned Struga Poetry Evenings, an internationally recognized festival that has attracted poets, writers, and artists from all corners of the world since 1961. This festival, one of the most important literary events in the world, celebrates the enduring power of language and culture. Tall trees planted by the Great poets, recipients of the prestigious Golden Wreath, whisper verses in the Park of poetry, attracting visitors who are searching for the symbiosis of poetry and nature.
Beyond its literary tradition, Struga is a living canvas of contemporary creativity. The town’s independent cultural initiatives and creative spaces serve as a gathering point for artists, musicians, and performers. Despite limited resources for cultural practitioners, cultural life in Struga thrives through grassroot initiatives and independent actors and producers who offer events, and contents from various disciplines, including film festival, contemporary music events, exhibitions, performances and other live events. The town’s charming location and cosmopolitan spirit of its people offer a platform for emerging artists to showcase their work. The town’s blend of old-world charm with modern energy creates an atmosphere for experimentation and collaboration. These events not only highlight the rich cultural heritage of the region but also encourage cross-cultural exchange and creative dialogue.
The town is a popular destination for both relaxation and celebration, offering a variety of cafes, restaurants, and shops along the lakeside promenade.
Struga is more than a picturesque destination — it is a place where history, nature, and creativity meet. With its rich cultural landscape, thriving arts scene, and welcoming atmosphere, Struga offers an inspiring setting for artists and creators seeking to connect with the spirit of the region and contribute to its evolving story.
Partners and Associates
For any questions, contact us via email and social media
info@lakescape.eu