On our motorbike tour through the Alps this weekend, we visited Italy, Austria and of course many summits in Switzerland. On the way from Italy to Austria we visited Lake Reschen (or Lago di Resia), an artificial Lake in South Tyrol, Italy, south of the Reschen Summit. The lake is famous for the bell tower of a 14th-century church: the tower is all what remains from the submerged village of Graun, and it probably Italy’s most famous drowned town:

Glockenturm im Reschensee

When they created the lake 1949/50, it was a catastrophic event for the local population: 163 buildings were demolished and submerged. All their protests did not help and were ignored in the chaotic time after World War II. The bell tower of the church St. Katharina (founded 1357) reminds us that the local population has lost everything.

Bell Tower of Lake Reschen (click to enlarge)

The bells were removed one week before  the demolition of the church and the creation of the lake in 1950. A legend says that during the winter you still can hear the church bells ring.

Happy Laking 🙂

Links

• Wikipedia article about Lake Reschen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reschensee
• Documentation (in German) about the creation of the lake: http://www.obervinschgau.org/graun/page21.htm