Lake Ritsa, also Didi Ritsa (Abkhaz: Риҵа), is a lake in Abkhazia, Georgia, in the basin of the Bzipi River, 884 m above sea level. Surface area 1.49 km², basin area 154 km², volume 94 million m³, maximum depth 101 m. The basin formed when a rockslide from the southeastern slope of the Gagra range dammed the Lashipsa River. In 1946 the Ritsa protected area (16,289 ha) was created to protect the nature of the lake and its surroundings. The road up from the sea was laid in 1936. The lake was a major tourist attraction in the Soviet period, with up to 1,000 tourists a day coming to see it. Joseph Stalin had a summer dacha near the lake.