The Haunting Legacy of Gleno Dam: A Tale of Beauty, Negligence, and Catastrophe

by | Sep 8, 2023 | experts | 0 comments

Please provide an attractive title, meta description, 5 bes hashtags and 350-word summary of the following article, ensuring that it adheres to proper British English grammar. Additionally, optimize it for search engine visibility by incorporating relevant keywords and phrases for high page backlink potential. Please do not use quotaing mark for keywords in the script. : È venuta giù la diga (the dam came down): this is the title of a ballad that four musicians - Cristina Donà, Omar Pedrini, Giorgio Cordini and Enrico Bollero - wrote together this past summer in front of the majestic "ruins" of the Gleno Dam, exactly 100 years after its collapse. In 1923, a few weeks after its inauguration, the dam gave out and swamped the valley below causing hundreds of dead and swallowing entire towns, leaving behind only death and destruction. Much less known than the Vajont tragedy, the Gleno disaster was just as shocking for its catastrophic consequences and it is still today, a century later, an emblematic example of how progress often wavers between creation and destruction and how architecture and engineering can produce artefacts of solemn beauty but, at the same time - due to human ignorance and negligence - of lethal destructiveness. Historical photos of the Dam, from the Gleno Archive The Gleno Dam was built starting in 1919 in upper Val di Scalve, in the province of Bergamo, not too far from the towns of Schilpario and Vilminore. It was supposed to supply electricity and motive power to the textile factories below, within the great effort towards modernization that Italy was going through after the devastation of the Great War and the Spanish flu epidemic that in just a few months caused over 600,000 victims, almost the 1.5% of the Italian population. The dam - as reported in the newspapers of the time - has the characteristics of a cyclopean building: built at 1,500 meters above sea level, convex in respect to the head of the valley, 260-meter long and 30-meter thick, according to its designers' intentions it was supposed to contain six million cubic meters of water, collected in an artificial lake that stretched over and area of 400,000 square meters. It was the first time that a mixed building technique was employed: the base of the dam was realized using the "gravity method," by placing enormous weights one on top of the other, while the upper part was build using the multiple arch dam system: an undoubtedly innovative technique but compromised - as it indeed happened - by human incompetence and greed. In order to save time and money, the construction company used substandard materials, using lime mortar instead of concrete, rusty iron leftover from the war instead new iron, and it underestimated the leakage of water that manifested right from the start at the base of the dam. In October, due to heavy rainfalls, the basin started to fill for the first time and the leakage of water became alarming, but nobody did anything about it. On December 1st, 1923, shortly after 7, the dam suddenly collapsed and six million cubic meters of water, mud, and debris gushed down the valley devastating everything they found on their way, reaching all the way to Lake Iseo. Some hydroelectric power plants at the bottom of the valley were swept away producing short circuits that crackled on the surface of the body of water. The few survivors talked about it as the apocalypse, the priest of a town district, whose house was just above the furious course of the water, told the journalists that he thought he was witnessing the end of the world. The incident has an incredibly powerful echo in the weeks and months immediately after the disaster, but not too long after that it was gradually silenced, not to disrupt the optimism and faith in the "magnificent fate" of a country that had just entered a twenty-year-long Fascist era. Today, a century after the tragedy, the ruins of that dam still stand solemn and somber, keeping the memory of what happened alive: if you hike up the path that starts in Pianezza, after about an hour walk, you can start seeing it, haughty just like the mountains encasing it, miserable and mournful, but still capable of giving you chills for how its impressiveness, its creative design and impulse, capsized into something completely opposite and became a death trap.

Brief 

Discover the history of the Gleno Dam collapse in 1923, its significance in architectural advancements, and the heartbreaking consequences of human negligence. A sombre reminder of the fragile balance between progress and destruction.

 

 

Insight

In the shadow of the magnificent ruins of the Gleno Dam, four musicians recently commemorated its tragic history, a century after its catastrophic collapse.

Built in 1919 in upper Val di Scalve, near Bergamo, the dam stands as a powerful testament to the challenges of Italy’s early 20th-century modernisation efforts, set against the backdrop of post-Great War recovery and the devastating Spanish flu pandemic.

Though lesser-known than the Vajont tragedy, the Gleno disaster serves as a poignant reminder of the delicate line between architectural beauty and potential devastation. Aimed at supplying electricity to the local textile factories, the dam represented a monumental feat of engineering.

Towering at 1,500 meters above sea level, it was designed to hold six million cubic meters of water over a vast 400,000 square meters.

A notable first was the dam’s mixed construction technique. The lower section used the gravity method, layering large weights, while the upper portion employed a multiple arch dam system, a pioneering approach. However, this innovation was marred by human shortcomings.

To cut costs, the construction firm resorted to compromised materials like lime mortar instead of concrete and rusty war-leftover iron instead of fresh supplies. Alarmingly, water leakages at the dam’s base were evident from the onset, yet no action was taken.

In December 1923, after heavy rains filled its basin, the dam disastrously collapsed. An overwhelming rush of water, mud, and debris cascaded down the valley, obliterating everything in its path, even extending its wrath to Lake Iseo.

Hydroelectric power plants were destroyed, causing electrifying short circuits over the water. Eyewitness accounts paint a chilling picture, likening the event to the apocalypse. Despite its initial resonance in media, the calamity soon faded from public memory, overshadowed by Italy’s emerging Fascist era.

Today, the dam’s ruins stand as a stark monument to this historical tragedy. Visitors embarking on a hike from Pianezza can witness its enduring presence – an awe-inspiring structure that once symbolised human ingenuity but ultimately became a harrowing death trap.

 

Highlight

  1. Towering at 1,500 meters above sea level, it was designed to hold six million cubic meters of water over a vast 400,000 square meters
  2. To cut costs, the construction firm resorted to compromised materials like lime mortar instead of concrete and rusty war-leftover iron instead of fresh supplies.
  3. Alarmingly, water leakages at the dam’s base were evident from the onset, yet no action was taken.

 

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