Three kilometers above the main road, west of Polychrono, a road leads to the heart of the mountain of Kassandra. There, at an altitude of 200m. there is a small lake called Mavrobara and is of great ecological interest. Nature monument since 1997, is a unique beauty of the wetland, visited by many tourists every year. Here are the three rare species of Testudinata (testudo hermanii boetgeri, emys orbicularis & mauremys caspica), which are extinct and find shelter in its calm waters. Protected by the Bonn Convention N.2719 and the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Flora and Fauna.
It is the only lake in the Kassandra peninsula and is, indeed, a point of nature and a place of the wider peninsula of Halkidiki that provokes admirers of the visitor. The area was named by the inhabitants of Polychrono, because in our place a place that stops the water and is small, in relation always to the sea, was called “bara”. This lake is indeed small in size. It should be in its entirety around 200 to 300 sq. m. It was called “blacklake” by the black color that had its water. This name (we always talk about the first composite, ie the black surname) should have resulted from the following reasons:
From the black color that took the water of the lake, as the shadows of the towering pine trees that surrounded it fell in it. Of the “mussels” and the other aquatic plants that were in abundance in her water, as well as from other objects falling from time to time and from the depth of her should exceed 10 meters. Its creation should be due to landslides many centuries ago. In 1995, the Kassandra Hunting Club built with stone the fountain that always runs cold water while the Kassandra Forestry installed wooden benches at the lake’s cleaned area.
The area is also enclosed in an area of 10 acres, and public information boards have been set up by the Forestry Authority in 2001. It is worth a walk up to Mavrombara, which, besides the turtles, has several hiking trails, churches, springs and rare vegetation, all of which a few kilometers from Polichrono.
