Lake Baikal’s ice library of miracles gathers wishes from around the world

The giant artistic installation, ‘Ice library of miracles,’ appeared on the shore of Lake Baikal on Feb. 4, not far from the city Baikalsk (3,200 miles east of Moscow).

The giant artistic installation, ‘Ice library of miracles,’ appeared on the shore of Lake Baikal on Feb. 4, not far from the city Baikalsk (3,200 miles east of Moscow).

Kirill Shipitsin/TASS
Siberian artists created a project that is becoming an international movement.

The giant artistic installation, ‘Ice library of miracles,’ appeared on the shore of Lake Baikal on Feb. 4, not far from the city Baikalsk (3,200 miles east of Moscow). It was created in the form of a labyrinth by local ice sculptors, led by architect Pavel Sannikov.

The installation is built of transparent ice from the lake, and open books are depicted on its walls. On the “pages” of these books are written wishes by people from all over the world.

The organizers opened a website a few weeks ago where people could send in their wishes and dreams. “Even though the site is only in Russian, we started getting wishes from foreign countries,” said Sannikov. “People from France, China, Canada, Germany, and others wanted to join.”

All dreams and wishes are featured on the site’s interactive map, and then etched into the ice. The organization plans to make ‘Ice-library of miracles’ an annual event that will attract tourists to the famous lake. This season, the installation will stay until mid-April. 

“In spring, the ice books will melt and run back into the lake in small rivers,” said Sannikov. “Then Baikal can ‘read’ them and, possibly make the wishes come true.”

The Ice Wonder Library, an international initiative to carve wishes of people from different countries in blocks of Baikal ice, opened at the Gora Sobolinaya&nbsp;ski resort on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, as part of Zimniada-2017, the 14th international winter games festival held on Baikal.\nKirill Shipitsin/TASS<p>The Ice Wonder Library, an international initiative to carve wishes of people from different countries in blocks of Baikal ice, opened at the Gora Sobolinaya&nbsp;ski resort on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, as part of Zimniada-2017, the 14th international winter games festival held on Baikal.</p>\n
The giant artistic installation, &lsquo;Ice library of miracles,&rsquo; appeared on the shore of Lake Baikal on Feb. 4, not far from the city Baikalsk (3,200 miles east of Moscow).\nKirill Shipitsin/TASS<p>The giant artistic installation, &lsquo;Ice library of miracles,&rsquo; appeared on the shore of Lake Baikal on Feb. 4, not far from the city Baikalsk (3,200 miles east of Moscow).</p>\n
The organizers opened a website a few weeks ago where people could send in their wishes and dreams.&nbsp;\nKirill Shipitsin/TASS<p>The organizers opened a website a few weeks ago where people could send in their wishes and dreams.&nbsp;</p>\n
A wording on a wall of the Icy Wonder Library in the Irkutsk Region.\n Kirill Shhipicin/RIA Novosti<p>A wording on a wall of the Icy Wonder Library in the Irkutsk Region.</p>\n
 
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