Starting from Poggio and going up the creek Edron, we arrive at the gigantic dam, 90 meters high, which, crossing the valley, created Lake of Vagli, a hydroelectric reservoir of well-36,000,000 cubic meters.
From the road you can go all the way to the dam through a staircase (6 km); it's worth it because this is something really impressive.
The fame of this lake is not so much due to its size and beauty of the landscape that it reflects, as the presence, at 70 meters depth, Fabbriche di Careggine, the "Ghost Village", so nicknamed by the media of half the world dates back to 1983, that every 10 years review in the light during the emptying of the basin, which is necessary to clean up mud from the grids to filter the water channeled to the turbine.

This is an event of enormous appeal, which is run at hundreds of thousands of tourists, many of which go to the village, and walk in a fantastic setting, the various streets that pass between the houses half in ruins and covered with a thick blanket of mud.

The dam built in the forties on the stream Edron marks the entry into the territory of Vagli.

History.
The Via Vandelli desired by sovereign Estensi Modena connected with the Apuan Riviera.
The Via Vandelli Edron crossed the river in the village of Fabbriche, first on a wooden bridge then later masonry.
Here the Via Vandelli just went back to the valley where there is now the hydroelectric reservoir, crossing the village of Fabbriche di Careggine (or Fabbrica di Careggine) that the tradition founded by Ferrai, the iron workers of Brescia in the thirteenth century who introduced small factories favored by the presence of the creek Edron particularly rich in water.

The employees become experts after centuries of activity, they found good support in the Duke of Modena Francesco III d'Este, who in 1755, to increase their activities Metallurgy, granted tax exemptions, exemption of military service and many other privileges.

The Via Vandelli addition to the iron mine that had to be a great road to the other an economic resource in the area, soon fell into ruin. In fact, flourished until the ironworks, mines Apuane when they went into crisis and the "fabbrichini" (so called the inhabitants of Fabbriche) returned to their traditional occupations: agriculture, forestry, pasture.

At the beginning of this century with the activation of marble many villagers of Fabbriche like the other inhabitants of the area, were engaged in the marble.

Construction of the dam
For the needs of the marble beds and in the area, was built in 1906 1907 a small hydroelectric plant downstream of Production.
In 1941 the Company Hydroelectric SELT-Valdarno began the construction of large dam ending in 1954.
In 1947 the village was evacuated and submerged by the lake: there were houses, fields, a church, a cemetery that reached beyond the small bridge saddle donkey and 146 inhabitants.
Every ten years, the lake is emptied for maintenance work, as happened in 1985 and 1994 and the slimy skeleton of the village returned visible and visitable.
A very impressive then the landscape, show where the village where the story was practically stop to years '50.

Interesting case in the sandstone, with their portals, the factories for the manufacture of iron, the bridge with three arches a long the Via Vandelli Edron via torrent, the Church of St. Teodoro, a single aisle, which still retains frescoed plaster on a square bell tower remained intact and the cemetery outside the village.

The church of St. Teodoro, in Romanesque style, with a rectangular apse was covered with barrel vaulting, surmounted by an octagonal lantern, connected with the central plumes from spherical and covered by a dome depressed, reduced.
Formerly subject to Careggine Parish and the Church of Vagli di Sotto.

Visit to the dam.
Each year, one day in mid-August, Enel opens the interior of the dam of Vagli to let the public know the secrets contained inside the giant of concrete, that are the basis for his safety.
Inside the dam there are tunnels and walkways that lead to various levels of the dam, characterized by the presence of static devices that monitor the behavior of the work.
Guided tours by staff Enel Unit Exercise Corfino, allow visitors to discover how and principals underlying security that the dam of Vagli is to the area.

Video :

Youtube: The village submerged 1983