The Tower in Lake Reschen

It is the 1355 built Romanesque tower of the parish church of Alt-Graun, and it reminds of this place, which sank here in 1950 in the waters of the reservoir.

Before 1950, there were three lakes at the Reschen Pass: Lake Reschen, Lake Mitter or Graun, and Lake Haider. Plans for a reservoir for energy generation existed during the time of the Danube monarchy and were revived after the First World War and the annexation of South Tyrol to Italy in 1920. However, these plans initially envisaged a much lower dam and a raising of the water level by only 5 meters. In 1939, the project was greatly expanded by the then fascist government, and the dam height was raised to 22 meters. These plans included the complete flooding of Graun and the partial flooding of Reschen. The population was forcibly expropriated "in the national interest."

The outbreak of the Second World War delayed the implementation of the project, so that the population was already hoping to have escaped the disaster of expropriation and resettlement. But already in 1947, two years after the end of the war, work on the reservoir was resumed. All protests and interventions were unsuccessful, and in 1950 it was finally done: the sluices of the dam were closed and Graun, the hamlets of Arlund, Piz, Gorf and Stockerhöfe, as well as large parts of Altreschen, disappeared forever in the waters of the reservoir. 163 residential and agricultural buildings were destroyed, 670 hectares of arable land flooded, 150 families lost their livelihood, half of them emigrated.

Today, little of all this is left to be felt. The area around Lake Reschen is a popular and flourishing holiday region, the mountains invite you to hike and mountain bike, in winter the beautiful ski area Schöneben is a draw. The circuit around the lake is a wonderful and much-used hiking, biking, Nordic walking and running route, the lake itself a wonderful area for fishing, boating, sailing and kite surfing.

Only the church tower of the sunken Alt-Graun, protruding from Lake Reschen, bears witness to the past.