Lake Ganna

Lake Ganna and Pralugano marsh by Cottini-Viola "Varese terra di colori" Ediz. Lativa

The Lake Ganna is 400 mt. length and 230 mt wide, with a surface of 0.07 sq km and a 3 mt maximum depth. The Margorabbia Brook that a little forward flows into the Lake Ghirla is its tributary and emissary. Since 1984, the wetland formed by the lake and a marshy strip of land that surround it has become a Nature Reserve.

It is surrounded by thick cane fields and woods with hygrophilic and mesophytic trees. Its water are coloured by water lilies and water chestnuts. In the water live pikes, rudds, tenches and in the woods the green woodpecker, the red woodpecker, the jay, the buzzard, the kestrel and the short-toed eagle have their home.

As the Benedictine monks were specialised in draining marshes, the presence of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Gemolo suggests that the marsh was once probably larger. Near the lake and the Abbey, stands the town of Ganna.