AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Kaupēnu Lake (Kaupēnu ezers) is a small, clear-water kettle lake sitting in the central part of Dzērbene parish in Latvia's Cēsis Municipality. Compact enough to take in at a glance—about 11.3 hectares, with an average depth of roughly 4 metres and a deepest pocket near 8 metres—it is exactly the kind of quiet, accessible piece of water that the Vidzeme uplands are scattered with.↗↗
What draws people here is its easy, undramatic charm: sloping and steep banks you can actually drive up to, a fringe of reeds, sedges and water lilies, wild irises along the shore, and a marked recreation area on the south side. It suits a relaxed lakeside stop, a stroll, or a quiet fishing afternoon rather than a day of scheduled sights.↗
A kettle lake of the Vidzeme uplands
Kaupēnu Lake is a subglacial kettle lake—a hollow left behind by a block of ice as the glaciers retreated, then filled with water. It holds its own among the parish's waters: at 11.3 hectares it ranks as the sixth-largest lake in Dzērbene, a parish that cradles more than 25 lakes and countless smaller ponds, and the list of them reads like a roll-call of the local landscape. The lake drains through a small stream into nearby Juveris, the biggest of the Dzērbenes lakes, and belongs to the wider Gauja river basin.
