Lac de Derborence
| Lac de Derborence | ||
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| Lac de Derborence seen from the southwest | ||
| Geographical location | Valais | |
| Tributaries | Derbonne , Chevilleince | |
| Drain | Derbonne → Lizerne | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 582933 / 125299 | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 1499 m above sea level M. | |
The Lac de Derborence is one of the youngest naturally formed mountain lakes in Switzerland . It is located in the municipality of Conthey in the Swiss Valais and, together with the surrounding pine forest, forms a nature reserve of the Swiss Confederation for Nature Conservation (now Pro Natura ). The lake was created in 1749 by a landslide on the slope of the Les Diablerets mountains north of the lake .
geography
The Lac de Derborence is 1499 m above sea level. M. in the basin of Derborence. The slopes of the Diablerets , the Devil's Mountains , stretch north of the lake , the Derbonne valley stretches to the east and the Cheville valley to the west. The lake is fed by the Derbonne and Chevilleince torrents and flows as Derbonne to the east at the La Liapey corridor into the Lizerne . Further drainage takes place through the Lizerne valley of the same name via its brook, which flows into the Rhone after about 16 kilometers at Ardon . The lake is dammed up by the debris from the landslides in 1714 and 1749.
A large part of a rock wall broke in 1749 on the slope of the Diablerets at 1900 m above sea level. M. from and shot into the valley basin. The 50 million cubic meters of rock covered an area of 5 square kilometers between the settlements of Godet and Derborence. At 1500 meters, this barrier dams the lake over a width of 1800 meters. The scree field, some of which rises over 100 meters, extends down the valley to an altitude of around 1100 m above sea level. M. Due to its largely natural state, the lake changes size and volume from time to time.
The youngest primeval forest in Switzerland has formed on its banks and on the scree slopes, and today it is one of three that can still be found in its original state. Due to the poor accessibility and the history of the valley, the forest has only been managed sporadically and has largely been in a natural state for almost three hundred years. Large parts of the previous tree population were destroyed by the landslides. A so-called pioneer forest developed on the barren ground, consisting of rubble and alluvial sand of the dammed lake, only nourished by the rotting remains of the uprooted trees. There are mainly spruce trees to be found here. In addition, larches and the pioneering species of mountain pine , willow and birch grow here . Occasionally trees can also be found that survived the landslide and some are more than six hundred years old. Even today larger blocks of rock can be seen protruding from the forest. The lake can be reached from Conthey via a small road through the Derborence valley. Today there is an inn and small weekend houses on its banks.
history
Before the landslide on September 23, 1714, some shepherds lived in alpine huts in the Derborence valley in the towns of Derborence and Godet. Two days after the disaster, the then pastor of Ardon went to the site of the accident to drive out the devil (the locals considered the landslide to be a work of evil and from then on also named the causative mountains, which were previously called Rochers or Scex de Champ , Diablerets so devil mountains , or devil horns ), and reported that 55 alpine huts had been destroyed and 14 people had lost their lives.
In the second landslide on June 23, 1749 another 40 alpine huts were destroyed. He caused the lake to be dammed up by falling 50 million cubic meters of rock. The valley was avoided for a long time and people only hesitantly returned to the apparently cursed valley. In this way an untouched flora could develop, unaffected by economic use. In 1911 the Derborence valley was declared a hunting reserve.
In 1934 the Vaudois writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz wrote a novel called Derborence about the events of the landslide of 1714. In 1956, a 29.7 hectare reserve was set up on the jungle area around the lake. In 1958, what was then the Swiss Confederation for Nature Conservation, financed by a chocolate selling campaign in favor of the reserve, acquired the former community forest areas and in 1961 set up a nature reserve around the lake. In 1985, Ramuz's book was filmed under the same name as Derborence by the director Francis Reusser .
literature
- Charles Ferdinand Ramuz: Derborence. Limmat Verlag, Zurich, ISBN 3-85791-439-4
Web links
- Information on the history of Derborence http://www.derborence.ch
- Information on the tree population at www.anw-nrw.de
- Maurice Terrettaz: Derborence. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Lac de Derborence on the ETHorama platform
- Conthey municipality www.conthey.ch (in French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Maurice Terrettaz: Derborence. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ^ ANW Landesgruppe NRW: Ecology and silviculture of the silver fir. , 2001. Read up at: www.anw-nrw.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
