Fascinating and fairy-tale is the symbol of Val Venosta. It is a small mountain paradise, an ideal place for summer and winter holidays. In this beautiful scenery of the South Tyrolean valley (Lake Resia), it is impossible not to notice its symbol, a bell tower rising in the middle of the lake.
It is all that remains of the ancient village of Curon Venosta.
The story, however, behind "the bell tower in the lake", is much less idyllic. The Romanesque church of the 14th century is a silent witness of the irresponsible construction of the dam which took place immediately after the end of the Second World War.
However, everything developed in a completely different way. An artificial reservoir for the production of electricity was the next project still under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Italian government (after the First World War, in 1919, Tyrol was divided with the peaceful pact of St. Germain, and South Tyrol annexed by Italy) in 1920 took over the project and granted a water level rise of up to 5 meters. The size of this project was not so worrying because it did not have an immediate danger for the villages Curon and Resia.
In 1939 the State granted the consortium "Montecatini" the construction of a dam at the bottom of the "Mittersee" which was to allow a water level of up to 22 metres. The population of Curon and Resia was totally neglected. With the beginning of the Second World War the project was temporarily abandoned. The inhabitants of the upper Vinschgau Valley believed that the reservoir project was buried forever. In 1947, however, the inhabitants of the two villages, Montecatini", were astonished and announced the immediate continuation of the construction of the reservoir.
By the summer of 1950 everything was ready. The locks were closed and the water rose. 677 hectares of land were submerged, almost 150 families lost their belongings, half of them were forced to emigrate. The compensation was very modest. The inhabitants of Curon were housed in makeshift barracks built in great haste at the beginning of Vallelunga. With this dam project, born at the time of Fascism, hundreds of families lost the foundations of their existence.
Today the bell tower in the lake at Curon has been put under protection and has become a magnet for tourists.
