Description of the attraction
Lake Lago della Sella is located in the Swiss canton of Ticino, in the commune of Airolo. You can get to it along the famous Saint-Gotthard Pass. From the side of Mount Ospizio, a small mountain trail with a length of several hundred meters leads to the lake.
Lago della Sella can be considered a creation of human hands, for it was formed by the installation of a large dam, built in the period from 1945 to 1949. The height of the wall is 36 meters and the length is about 334 meters. In total, the reservoir contains more than 9 million cubic meters of water. Water from this lake and the nearby Lago di Lusendro is used to generate electricity in the Airolo station.
Two huge generators with a capacity of about 29 megawatts each generate enough power to meet the needs of Chiasso, the southernmost Swiss city of about 10,000 inhabitants.
Since the construction of power plants was carried out immediately after the end of the Second World War, the lack of labor and building materials led to the choice of the type of construction that allows, in the shortest possible time, at a minimum cost, to erect a wall that can withstand the pressure of the liquid entering the reservoir.
As time has shown, the calculation turned out to be correct. Even today, after more than half a century, the artificially created lake Lago della Sella continues to fulfill the task once set before it by people and does it in no way worse than modern power plants.
