Reschensee
| Reschensee Lago di Resia |
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| Coordinates | 46 ° 48 '12 " N , 10 ° 31' 46" E | ||||||||
| Data on the structure | |||||||||
| Lock type: | Earthfill dam | ||||||||
| Construction time: | 1947-1949 | ||||||||
| Height above valley floor: | 32.5 m | ||||||||
| Height of the structure crown: | 1501.01 m slm | ||||||||
| Crown length: | 415 m | ||||||||
| Power plant output: | 100 MW | ||||||||
| Operator: | SELEDISON AG | ||||||||
| Data on the reservoir | |||||||||
| Altitude (at congestion destination ) | 1498.1 m slm | ||||||||
| Water surface | 6.77 km² | ||||||||
| Reservoir length | 6 km | ||||||||
| Reservoir width | 1 km | ||||||||
| Maximum depth | 28 m | ||||||||
| Storage space | 116 000 000 m³ | ||||||||
| Total storage space : | 120 000 000 m³ | ||||||||
| Catchment area | 348 km² | ||||||||
| Particularities: |
Church tower in the lake |
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The Reschensee (Italian: Lago di Resia ) is a reservoir in the municipality of Graun in western South Tyrol , which serves as the upper basin of the Glurns storage power plant . The lake is located in the Vinschgau or Vinschger Oberland , the highest section of the Adige Valley . The water of the Etsch , Rojenbach , Karlinbach and some smaller tributaries is dammed in it . The artificial lake has a length of six kilometers and a width of about one kilometer at its widest point and a storage volume of 120 million m³, which is almost entirely used as a storage volume and thus forms a so-called annual reservoir. The water from the reservoir is fed through a twelve-kilometer-long pressure tunnel three meters in diameter on the left side of the valley to above the cavern power station, where it drives two 52.5 MVA generators with a head of 586 meters via two Pelton turbines each . The average annual generation of electrical energy is around 250 gigawatt hours.
In the immediate vicinity of the lake are the main town of the municipality, Graun , the villages of Reschen and St. Valentin auf der Haide , as well as the hamlets of Kaschon and Spin.
There were three lakes on the Reschen Pass until the lake was dammed in 1950: the Reschensee, the Mittersee (also called Grauner See) and the Haidersee, which still exists today . When the lake was dammed, the entire village of Graun and a large part of the village of Resia sank in the floods of the reservoir, a total of 163 houses and 523 hectares of fertile cultivated soil were flooded. Today only the church tower protruding from the Reschensee testifies to the sunken Alt-Graun.
history
From 1911 there were first studies on the use of hydropower in the upper Vinschgau . Immediately after the annexation of South Tyrol by Italy in 1920, these plans were taken up again on the Italian side. Reschen and Mittersee should be dammed an additional five meters each. Project applications were examined and rejected several times, but no concrete measures were taken at first. From 1937 onwards, the fascist government pushed the project again and once again asked business to submit project proposals. Finally, in 1939, the project proposal from a subsidiary of the Montecatini Group (Societá Elettrica Alto Adige, SEAA) was approved after changes, but no license was granted. The first expropriations occurred in the "national interest to strengthen national industry", and construction work on tunnels / pipelines and the power station began. The changes to the original planning of the SEAA (storage target 1485 m) initially remained unknown to the public, an inconspicuous notice made pro forma in Italian at the parish hall remained unnoticed as intended: With a large dam, both lakes were to be dammed at 1497 m, opposite for Lake Reschen this meant an increase in the water level by 22 meters, compared with Lake Mittersee by 27 meters. The places Graun would have to be given up completely and Reschen partly. A second stage with the Kastelbell power station was also part of the project. In February 1943, the license valid from May was finally granted. With the establishment of the German administration in South Tyrol in September 1943, work came to a standstill.
After the end of the war, further construction stopped initially due to financial difficulties. However, the Swiss electricity companies urgently needed "winter electricity" after the project for the Rheinwald storage power plant near Splügen had failed in 1946. They offered Montecatini a financing of 30 million SFR in return for the supply of 120 gigawatt hours of electrical energy per low water period (winter, spring), starting in November 1949 for ten years. In March 1947 the inhabitants were informed by representatives of the Montecatini about the size of the reservoir and the now very short schedule. Immediately afterwards, construction of the dam began. 7,000 workers, mostly recruited in southern Italy, were deployed for both power plant projects.
The expropriations had already taken place in 1940/41 under the fascist government and the extremely low compensation had been deposited with the deposit box in Bozen. The protest of the population that began was no longer able to stop the project, but on the intervention of the then Prime Minister and President Antonio Segni, the compensation was redefined by a parity commission in 1948/49. There was no right to real replacement anyway. Even before the commission came to a conclusion in October 1949, a trial damming was carried out on August 1st at 1,485 m, also in order to be able to fulfill the contract with the Swiss energy industry from November of the same year. The population perceived the flooding as a provocation, the police had to intervene to protect the Montecatini employees on site. Since it was now clear that the first full traffic jam would take place from late summer 1950 and the compensation had been determined, the approx. 100 affected families from Graun and Reschen had to decide whether they wanted to stay on site and build new houses at a higher level or move elsewhere . Ultimately, the reduced agricultural area, which was the livelihood for the Brown Swiss cattle breeding, which had been practiced until then, was the decisive factor in only around 35 of these families staying. In the summer of 1950, apart from the listed church tower of Graun from the 14th century, all buildings in Graun and the hamlets of Arlund, Piz, Gorf and Stockerhöfe (St. Valentin) were demolished and flooded, as was the affected part of Reschen. A reservoir with an area of 677 hectares was created.
In the years after 1973, the South Tyrolean provincial government decided on extensive renovation measures. About 35 hectares of cultivated area have been reclaimed with material from the reservoir.
The consequences of the damming:
- 70% of the population has emigrated or emigrated
- 163 residential and agricultural buildings were blown up
- 514 hectares of cultivated land destroyed
- 70% fewer farm animals
Sports
A hiking, Nordic walking and running route with a hard surface that is 15.3 km long leads around Lake Reschensee. The Reschensee itself is a fishing area , live there whitefish (whitefish), lake trout , perch , rainbow trout and pike .
The valley station of the six-person gondola to the Schöneben ski area is located directly on the west side of the lake . There is a connection to several lifts in winter.
The relatively high wind strengths on Lake Reschen allow for wind-dependent sports. In the summer months the lake is frequented by kite surfers . In winter, Lake Reschen is a meeting place for ice sailors , snow kiters and ice surfers .
The International German Snowkite Championships have been taking place on the frozen Lake Reschen since 2008. Because the lake, in contrast to many German snowkite areas, offers a high level of snow and wind security, the organizers have chosen it as a regular venue for the championships. In addition, due to its location in the border triangle of South Tyrol, Austria and Switzerland, it is also easily accessible for active drivers from other Alpine countries. As it is an open championship, athletes from Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe take part alongside German athletes.
Tower of the old parish church of St. Catherine
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The most striking focal point on Lake Reschen and the landmark of the area is the church tower in the lake of the submerged village of Graun (map) . This protrudes from the water of the lake even when the water level is high; when the water level is low, an enclosed water basin around the tower symbolizes its fate. It is the bell tower of the former parish church of St. Catherine, which was not blown up for reasons of monument protection and which was inaugurated in 1357. After standing in the water for around 60 years, the masonry was renovated in 2009 with funds from the State of South Tyrol. The roof was also renewed and the dials of the former tower clock were restored. The clockwork is in the KuK Museum Bad Egart .
The Reschensee in literature
The Italian writer Marco Balzano describes the history of Graun and its flooding in Lake Reschen from the perspective of a teacher born around 1900 in the novel I stay here (in the original Resto qui , 2018).
Others
The Schlager group Kastelruther Spatzen wrote a song in 1994 about the history of the lake - " Atlantis of the Mountains".
In the Italian Netflix series Curon , released in 2020, a supernatural curse has grown up around the bell tower and Lake Reschen.
literature
- Brigitte Maria Pircher: The Reschen reservoir from its beginnings until today. Diploma thesis University of Innsbruck, 2003.
- David Share: It is as it is (in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung August 16, 2015, p. 59)
- Brigitte Maria Pircher and Georg Lembergh: The sunken village . Edition Raetia, 2020 ISBN 9788872835937
- Marco Balzano: I'm staying here . Translated from the Italian by Maja Pflug. Diogenes, Zurich 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b vinschgau-direkt.com: The Reschensee in Graun im Vinschgau. Retrieved September 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Information board on site on the model of the Reschensee area before the flooding
- ↑ South Tyrol travel guide - time for the best: highlights, insider tips, feel-good addresses. By Eugen E. Hüsler, Udo Bernhart. P. 31
- ↑ FAZ online
- ↑ suedtirol-trentino.de: Restoration of the church tower in Reschensee finished. July 18, 2009, accessed December 16, 2014 .
