I’ll just quote the legend about the name of this beautiful lake from the back of this postcard below. The rubber stamp on it is not a postal cancellation — when I was visiting Gagra town in 2017-ish, the post office was temporarily closed, and I asked a person in the “communications center” (fixed line telephony support, bills, international calls) if she could stamp my card with something, just so I have a “record” of being there.
One of the legends about Lake Ritsa tells that in ancient times a girl named Ritsa lived in the mountains. She had three mighty brothers: Agepsta, Atsetuk and Pshegishkha. One day, when the brothers went far away to hunt, the robbers Gega and Yupshara kidnapped Ritsa. She screamed, and the mountains repeated the cry. Hearing their sister’s call for help, the brothers rushed to save her. Pshegishkha threw a heroic shield at the robbers, but missed. The shield fell and blocked the river. Water quickly began to flood the valley and in a moment turned it into a lake. Help arrived and inspired Ritsa, and with her last strength she broke free from the tenacious hands of the robbers, but, unable to stay on her feet, fell into the seething lake. No matter how hard the brothers tried, they could not save their sister: Ritsa remained under water. Then Agepsta grabbed Yupshara and threw him into the lake. But the waters of Ritsa did not accept him and pushed him over the shield of Pshegishkha and carried him into the sea. Gega ran after him, but he could not save his brother. From terrible grief, the brothers of Ritsa turned into mighty rocks. To this day, the brothers-mountains stand, bowing their heads over their sister – Lake Ritsa.
