After 70 years Curon Venosta has re-emerged, at least temporarily, from the water. The only visible evidence of the town in the autonomous province of Bolzano in Trentino-Alto Adige that normally emerges from the waters of Lake Resia is the Romanesque bell tower of the church of Sant’Anna.
For a few days, however, the remains of the ancient submerged village located in Alto Adige – the alpine region that borders Austria and Switzerland – have come to light since in order to carry out maintenance work on the artificial reservoir, the lake has been drained.
The village which, before being flooded in 1950, housed 163 houses and 523 hectares of agricultural land was so to speak sacrificed. At the time, the Montecatini Electric Company intended to build a power plant that would produce energy for all of Northern Italy, but the water level rose to 22 meters and the whole town went under water, leading to the evacuation of 150 families.
The protests of the villagers did nothing: Curon was then rebuilt further upstream. “Lake Resia – said the operating director of Alperia Greenpower Andreas Bordonetti – is the largest artificial lake in South Tyrol with 120 million cubic meters of reservoir capacity. It powers the Glorenza hydroelectric plant which can produce up to 250 million kw / h per year “.
But now the ghost town, or rather what remains, has become a destination not only for the residents of the new Curon, but also for the curious who wish to see the ghost town with their own eyes.
For their part, the locals – almost all native German speakers – say they experience a strange sensation in seeing the steps, cellars and walls near the bell tower of the 14th century church on what is the bed of the lake.
A story, in some ways fascinating, this of Curon Venosta – Graun im Vinschgau in German language – which was told in the documentary by Georg Lembergh. The submerged country (2018) and in the novel Resto qui by Marco Balzano. The town, with its submerged bell tower, was also chosen by Netflix as the location of the science fiction series Curon. The singular story of this Trentino-Alto Adige municipality has been reported by numerous newspapers and television networks all over the world: as well as by the major Italian newspapers, it has also been reported by CTV News, National Post, CBS, BBC, and USA Today.
As soon as the works are completed, Curon Venosta will return to being a timeless witness to the time that has stopped here.
