One of the most fascinating places in Italy is found in the province of Lucca. It’s a spectre of nature that appears from time to time.
Here we are in Garfagnana at the feet of the Apuan Alps, near to the famous peaks of Tambura, Sumbra and Roccadeglia in the Vagli area, where you can go hiking surrounded by spectacular scenery, especially at sunrise or sunset.
Stop for as long as you want in front of Lake Vagli, which was created by the dam built on river Edron in 1946 to produce hydroelectric energy and supply the area with water reserves.
This is the largest man-made basin in Tuscany and it is famous for containing a big secret in its depths. As you stop along its shores and listen to the silence, you feel a shiver down your spine and wonder what could have caused it. Well, finding out that there’s a ghost town at its bottom might have something to do with it.
Yes, this is the secret concealed by the waters of Vagli. Fabbriche di Careggine was a twelfth-century town that the technological race of the twentieth century erased from the map for ever in just a few minutes.
It was a town where life past by for centuries and whose residents were uprooted from their homes and moved elsewhere to make way for the lake.
Stories speak of a town that is still inhabited beneath the water, especially at night.
There was a strong mixture of curiosity, surprise and desolation felt by the lucky ones able to visit during the maintenance works carried out on the dam.
What an experience to see the town slowly re-emerge as the water was emptied! First, the church of San Teodoro with its bell tower, then the stone-clad houses, still intact, the bridge, the cemetery, etc. Amazingly, everything seems as though time stood still sixty years ago when it was all submerged in water.
It is a spectral landscape, like an underwater Pompeii that is only revealed on rare occasions, every ten years or so for maintenance purposes.
Fabbriche di Careggine came to the surface again in 1958, 1974, 1983, 1994 and 2004.
As yet, we don’t know when the next time will be. The only thing that is certain is that, hidden or re-emerged, Fabbriche di Careggine is one of those extraordinary places that are well worth visiting. If only to feel it alive, down there beneath the waters. – source
La settimana Incom 00065 del 03/07/1947
Val Garfagnana. Inondazione artificiale
Descrizione sequenze:gli abitanti abbandonano Fabbriche ; un uomo apre la diga di Vagli che inizia a scaricare acqua nella valle sottostante ; Fabbriche è sommersa dalle acque ;
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Il lago di Vagli, nel comune di Vagli Sotto in provincia di Lucca, si è formato artificialmente con lo sbarramento del Torrente Edron nel 1947 da parte della SELT Valdarno (oggi ENEL s.p.a.).
Nel 1948 sono stati portati a termine i lavori della diga con il susseguente innalzamento a 92 metri.
Le acque del lago salendo hanno sommerso alcuni borghi tra i quali il principale era Fabbriche di Careggine, piccolo borgo di fabbri ferrai bresciani che riemerge a ogni svuotamento del lago.
Il lago contiene 34 milioni di metri cubi d’acqua e viene svuotato eccezionalmente nel caso sia necessario un intervento di manutenzione.
L’ultima volta è stato svuotato nel 1994.