Devil's Lake (Jugla)
“In my opinion, this is the most dangerous lake in the city. You can drown anywhere, but this is the easiest place to do. The water here is a little reddish, probably from peat, the depth in some places reaches 15-17 meters. The fact that a lot of people drowned here is explained by underwater currents, cold springs, viscous, muddy, double bottom and underwater grass, in which you can get entangled. All "Yuglovskie" lakes are connected by underground channels, and on Lake Chertovoy this is expressed in strong currents and bottom movement, as well as the sudden disappearance and appearance of certain species of fish.
This is what Jan Gramont, my old friend, a Juglovian aborigine, who has been living on the very shore of this lake for almost 50 years, said. In his childhood, local residents rarely bathed here, mostly residents who moved from other areas and stray passengers climbed into the water. The locals even had a sign: if forget-me-nots appear near the water, it means that the lake “wants to eat”.
In those days, on average, 4-5 people drowned per season. In terms of the number of drowned people, "The Devil" was in the lead for many seasons not only among the reservoirs of Riga, but, perhaps, even in Latvia. There were many different stories. One bather saw a hand reaching out to him from the depths with a watch with a large dial and luminous hands, he rushed to the shore, and after it turned out that a week ago a man with exactly the same watch had drowned.
There were rumors that once, a man who drowned on the "Devil" was allegedly later found on the "Fairy Tale" - the local name of the neighboring lake Dambyapurva. Local boys told each other that if you dive too deep, you can break through the peat and end up where they never return. It is no longer possible to break through - bottom cold currents, cramp and cracks. My friend and his friends always went to swim at Yuglu, although he lived literally next to the Devils. This has been the case for about 10-15 years in a row. Then the number of drowned people dropped sharply (maybe the lake was already saturated or the population grew old, fewer people began to climb into the water).
There is also a legend among the people about a church that stood either on the shore or on an island and plunged into this lake. All this looks like folklore, and it would not be worth paying attention, but several people told me that immediately after the war, crosses were thrown into the lake for some reason, and this was due to the sunken church. In addition, in the late 60s, on the bank from the street. Malienas found a large gold cross. An inner voice tells me that there is something in this story. Readers, if you have heard anything about this church or anything related to it - write.
