The lago di Vagli is the biggest artificial lake of Tuscany located in the town of Vagli di Sotto (district of Lucca), in Garfagnana, in the beautiful Apuan Alps.
This lake has a very nice story because it has been created in the 1947 with the building of a dam by the actual electricity provider on the existing river of Edron, however in the middle of the lake there was a small town called Fabbriche di Careggine which was evacuated and plunged by the water pulled into the valley, becoming the actual “ghost town” underneath the lake.
This town was of medieval construction and composed by 32 houses. It was lived by 146 people almost all blacksmiths which were all moved to new houses built in the actual town of Vagli di Sotto by the fascist regime.
Along the years this lake has been emptied 4 times for maintenance to the dam and the last one was on 1994. In these special occasions the small ghost town of Fabbriche di Careggine was fully visible again and, among expectations, all exactly as it was at the time of the construction of the dam, even the church was having its full bell tower (which sometimes goes out of the water when the water tide is very low). Of course the events were very attractive for everybody being a very special place, people were allowed to walk down into the valley and the ghost town.
Last dam maintenance was planned by 2016 but it has been postponed several times by the current electricity provider and never done anymore until current days, so nobody ever seen anymore the ghost town.
By googling the Lago di Vagli and Fabbriche di Careggine you can find photos of the ghost town took when the lake was emptied.
Has somebody ever been lucky to see this by his own eyes?
Indeed, I would be curious to see it for real as well. When maintenance in 2016 was announced everybody in the area was excited to book in and see how the town was, after such long time since the last successfully maintenance.
Lago di Vagli seems to be a beautiful place and I suppose there will be to much expectation next time that will be maintained.
You had a fantactic walk over the bridge :)))
Lovely photos! I like visiting places like these and I’ve missed this place! I was all around Tuscany, but I didn’t know about this lake. I guess I must visit again. Are there hiking trips organized there?
Yes indeed, hopefully there will be one more time! Along those years and with every recent time postponing we had the impression the local electricity provider is not anymore so willing to do so since they need to take care about the dam … but finger crossed, many people looking forward to it of course .
thank you! You should definitely visit the area at your next trip in Tuscany .
Yes there are many hiking paths all around the area and those mountains and they are all beautiful places. The mountains (Garfagnana) is a very wide mountains chain between the Apuane Alps and Tuscany Appenines. Besides the mountains you find also lot of famous and typical towns and places worth to visit of.
Thank you @Nyainurjanah ! Haha of course no ghosts, that’s just the label it has been given to this town especially when it was visible out of the water … you know the the impression of those ruins coming out of the water and totally abandoned gives you that feeling.
The reason is due to the hidden old town completely under the water. As described in the post the artificial lake has been emptied several times and this old town was reappearing completely in its shape inside the lake valley, giving the special feeling of a ghost town.
.
.