The sacred lakes of the Dvina region, Belarus

The paper discusses the sacral geography of the Dvina region, in northwest Belarus:  the sacred lakes situated in this region, and place-legends about vanished churches relating to these lakes. Research is based on the analytical method, and interprets folkloric sources, historical facts and data collected during ethnographic field trips. The main conclusion of the article attests to the fact that place-legends about a vanished church (related to the majority of the lakes) indicate the holiness of these bodies of water. In the past, holiness might have contained two closely interrelated planes: an archaic one, which originated from pre-Christian times, and that of the Early Middle Ages, related to the Christian baptism of the people of the Duchy of Polotsk.