Idea for a worthwhile Whitsun excursion
05/22/2021
It was not out of pure reverence for the wonderful, air-cooled 911 Turbo that the church sank into the water. No, in the summer of 1950, the village of Graun and parts of the village of Reschen, situated on the pass of the same name in South Tyrol, were flooded to generate electricity. 150 families were robbed of their livelihoods. As a result of restoration work, water has now been drained from Lake Reschen and the fragments of the two villages have reappeared after 70 years.
After a partial damming, the first full damming took place in the late summer of 1950. Now the 100 or so affected families from Graun and Reschen had to decide whether to stay or move away. As a lot of agricultural land for brown cattle breeding was lost with the damming, only around 35 of these families decided to stay. In the spring of 1950, all the buildings in Graun and its hamlets of Piz, Arlund, Stockerhöfe and Gorf, as well as parts of Reschen, were demolished and flooded, with the exception of Graun's 14th century church tower, which is a listed building. Today's reservoir thus has an area of 677 hectares and an unmistakable landmark.
