Title: The church bell tower "trapped" in the waters of Lake Resia in Italy - Abandoned Spaces
Headings: The church bell tower “trapped” in the waters of Lake Resia in Italy
The church bell tower “trapped” in the waters of Lake Resia in Italy
Content: Markus Bernet – CC BY-SA 2.0
The residents that lived in the valley protested fiercely, but their efforts to stop the project were fruitless. The construction of the dam started in 1940. World War II stopped the construction works for a while and it was finally finished after the war, in July 1950. Thousands of years of history going back to Roman times was lost forever. The entire town of Graun (Curon in Italian), parts of the town of Reschen and the small villages of Arlung, Piz, Gorf, and Stockerhofe disappeared underwater. The bell tower is the only remainder of the town of Graun
Approximately 1290 acres of developed and fertile land were submerged. More than 163 houses were flooded. Today the upper end of the bell tower that appears on the surface of the green-blue water is the only remainder of the old town of Graun and former life in the valley. The lone Romanesque bell tower was part of an old church from the 14th century, which was also flooded with the rest of the buildings when the water was leveled up to 55 feet. The bell tower was built in the 14th century.