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23.12.2007

Jutting out into Lake Tamula is a peninsula with a delightful name - Roosisaar, or Rose Island, where people have been living for almost 5000 years. Roosisaar and the city of Võru are separated by waterways: the Vahejõgi River, which joins Tamula to Lake Vagula and the beginning of what was once the course of the Võhandu River.

The water level in Lake Tamula was much higher in the past, lapping against the steep shoreline where there is now tree-lined parkland The lake has often sent out its waters to flood the city. There are early records of this from the 19th century, but the great floods of 1952 are still well-remembered. In order to rein in the threat of Tamula's rising waters, a channel was dug from Lake Vagula to the Võhandu River between 1933 and 1934 forming the new course of the river. The water level in Tamula dropped by one metre, and spring overflows found a more direct route towards Peipsi via the
course of the Võhandu River.

Crossings and bridges were constructed to provide access to Roosisaar, and today access is via Estonia's longest suspension bridge (180 metres), which was opened on 23 December 1998.