Lake Resia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lake Resia Lago di Resia Reschensee
The campanile in Lake Resia
Location	Province of Bolzano-Bozen
Coordinates	46°48′N 10°31′ECoordinates: 46°48′N 10°31′E
Lake type	Artificial
Primary inflows	Adige
Primary outflows	Adige
Basin countries	Italy
Surface area	6.6 km²
Max. depth	6 m
Water volume	0.12 km³
Surface elevation	1,498 m
Settlements	Graun im Vinschgau (Curon Venosta)

Lake Resia (Italian: Lago di Resia, German: Reschensee) or Lake Reschen is an artificial lake located in the western portion of the Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen, near the Resia Pass and 2 km from the Austrian border. With its capacity of 120 million cubic meters it is the largest lake in the province. It is fed by the Adige, Rojenbach and Karlinbach and drained by the Adige.

Plans for a smaller (5 meter deep) artificial lake date from 1920. In July 1939, the Montecatini company (now Edison Energia) introduced a new plan for a 22-meter deep lake, which would unify two natural lakes (Lake Resia and Lake Graun) and submerge several villages, including Graun (it. Curon) and part of Reschen (it. Resia). The creation of the dam started in April 1940, but due to the war and local resistance, did not finish until July 1950. Ironically, in 1947 Montecatini received 30 milion Swiss Francs from the Swiss company Elektro-Watt for the construction of the dam (in exchange for 10 years of seasonal electricity) after the local population had voted against the company's plans to build a dam that would have submerged the Swiss village of Splügen. Graun's population did not have such success, despite a willing ear of Antonio Segni who would later become Italy's prime minister, and in total 163 homes and 523 hectares of cultivated land were submerged. The location had been inhabited since Roman times.

The top of the 14th-century church tower, now an apparent campanile, is still visible. In winter, when the lake freezes, the campanile is reachable by foot. A legend says that during the winter one can still hear church bells ring (in reality the bells were removed from the tower on July 18, 1950, a week before the demolition of the church and the creation of the lake).