In the early 1960s, a dam also contributed to the “economic miracle” of Italy. Nestled among the Alps of Sondrio, precisely halfway between Italy and Switzerland, the Val di Lei dam “lit up the lights” of Milan and Lombardy, ensuring the energy supply needed to drive the engine of one of the richest regions in Italy.

The story of this infrastructure project is timeless, not only because of the unique characteristics of the design and the techniques used in its construction, but also for the impact it had and continues to have on both Swiss and Italian development. The most recent intervention on the occurred in 2022, when a massive photovoltaic system consisting of 1,000 modules was installed on the dam wall, capable of producing approximately 380 megawatt-hours of electricity annually.