70 years ago, Curon, an Italian village bordering Austria and Switzerland, was intentionally drowned to make way for a hydro-electric dam. Now, after repairs to the reservoir, the drowned town has emerged from the water.
Lake Resia was already a tourist attraction due to the 14th century church steeple that stuck out of the water in the middle of the lake. The steeple was the last visible thing of the village of Curon.
The town was drowned in 1950 when it was decided that two natural lakes would be merged into one in order to create a reservoir for a hydro-electric plant. 1,000 residents were displaced as result and over 160 homes were submerged into the icy waters.
400 of the residents created a village not too far from Curon while everyone else had left entirely. No one could ever forget the village though. Lake Resia is very popular amongst hikers and in winter, the lake is frozen over so tourists can actually walk to the church steeple.
The reason that the village has been uncovered is due to reservoir repairs that have caused the lake to be drained. Visitors have been walking through the eerie abandoned village and discovering cellars and walls that have been underwater for so long. It’s a bit like a very young Pompeii.
Who knows, maybe in a couple of hundred years, the site will become as historically valuable as Pompeii.