Sign up for an invite
Italy's Drowned Village
Written by Karl Fabricius 
Photo:
Image: suedtirol.altoadige
Legend has it the bell can still be heard in the dead of winter, sounding out its knell despite the fact that it has long since been removed. The bell tower of the 14th century church that projects from Lake Reschen in the far north of Italy is all that is now visible of the once thriving village of Graun. In the middle of the last century, the town was drowned by the artificial lake that lies above it to this day – and all because of the business designs of a big electricity firm.
Photo:
Image: Petr Drápalík
The history of Graun, near the Austrian-Italian border, stretches back to Roman times, but this small village enjoyed the relative anonymity of most settlements of its size until the 1930s, when the story of why it was submerged begins.
Photo:
Image: Photographer unknown via Mental Floss
In 1939, the electric company Montecatini announced plans for a 70-foot deep lake that would unify two natural lakes, Reschensee and Mittersee. A huge dam should be built, said the bosses, harnessing nature’s power to generate a wealth of seasonal electricity. The catch? Several villages, including Graun and part of Reschen, would be flooded in the process.
Photo:
Image via schule.provinz
The building of the dam began in 1940 in the face of fierce local resistance, and this opposition together with the War slowed progress so that it was not completed until 1950. Nevertheless, built the dam was.
Photo:
Photo: Charles01
A total of 163 houses and 1,290 acres of cultivated land were sunk below the rising waters. The townsfolk were displaced, the sums of money they were offered doubtless scant consolation for the loss of their homes.
Photo:
Photo: Filippo
Buildings like the main part of the church were demolished before the flooding took place, and yet the town of Graun can still be imagined, sleeping beneath the water’s surface. In any event, it will not be forgotten while the bell tower still stands, an icon of the region, still reachable by foot when the lake freezes over.
To see more incredible drowned churches, click here.
If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subscribe to our RSS feed? We'll even throw in a free album.
License:
Attribution-Share Alike 
Related Posts
Popular in Off The Beaten Track
Comments
Dave R (not verified) says:
Nov 6th, 2009 at 8am
It's funny that it's always an "evil company" that's damming up a river or lake to generate power, there's never a mention of the public's insatiable demand for ever-increasing amounts of electricity, which is what really drive projects like this in the first place. And by the way, hydro power is about the most "green" way to generate power there is*. OK, a few people had to move. I feel bad for them. But it was a one-time inconvenience, and it's a better alternative than ravaging the countryside to mine coal, and pumping that many more tons of pollutants into the atmosphere every year.
*assuming they've included fish ladders so fish can spawn and all that.
Richard (not verified) says:
nice pictures. well, if we don't straighten up our damaging ways against the environment, pretty soon that tower's going to be completely submerged in water- and so will other major cities and villages all over the world!