Grosser Teich Torgau, Artificial pond and fish farm in Torgau, Germany
Grosser Teich Torgau is an artificial fish pond covering about 175 hectares with water ranging from 1.5 to 2 meters deep. The surface is framed by reed beds, gentle shorelines, and surrounding meadows and strips of woodland.
The pond was created as a fish pond by decree of the Electorate of Saxony in 1483/84, though sources also name 1478 and even 1457. Its dam holds back the Schwarzer Graben/Weinske. For the fortress of Torgau the pond served as a water reservoir for flooding the fortress moats.
This pond was once central to feeding the electoral court's tables and still shapes how local people see their landscape today. Visitors can sense these historical ties to royal life all around the shoreline.
The pond lies south of Torgau and is held back by a dam on the Schwarzer Graben/Weinske. The water is only 1.5 to 2 metres deep, and a nature reserve surrounds the shore, where the Biberhof Torgau nature conservation centre opened in 1995. The annual fish harvest takes place in November.
The nature reserve around the pond is managed from the Biberhof Torgau centre, set up on the shore by the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU) in 1995. The dam holds back the Schwarzer Graben/Weinske stream, and the pond lies at about 80 metres above sea level.
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