I.S.T.A.
Disastri e comunità alpine Storia e antropologia della catastrofe
1 Dicembre 2019
DISASTRI E COMUNITÀ ALPINE Storia e antropologia della catastrofe
Progetto: I.S.T.A. - Incontri per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Alpine Società Storica e Antropologica di Valle Camonica Revisione testi e traduzioni: Valeria Gazzoli, Luca Giarelli. Comitato organizzativo: Loris Bendotti, Ivan Faiferri, Luca Giarelli, Gian Paolo Scalvinoni, Giancarlo Taboni. L’edizione di questo libro è stata curata da: Luca Giarelli. Immagini: Copertina. Fronte: Retro:
Diga del Gleno nel 2009, Etienne. Re Vittorio al disastro del Gleno, 1923, www.archiviogleno.it Corna devastata dal disastro del Gleno, 1923, www.archiviogleno.it Vittime del Vajont, 1963, Giuseppe Zanfron. Diga del Vajont, 1963, Veneto01.
Immagini: Appartengono ai rispettivi autori, eccetto dove indicato diversamente. Consorzio Turistico Valchiavenna: pp. 56-57; Xavier Caré: p. 122; Archivio del Gleno: pp. 219-220. Profilo montuoso: Monte Concarena, Valle Camonica. Senza il permesso scritto è vietata la riproduzione del presente lavoro sotto qualsiasi forma. Youcanprint Self-Publishing Via Roma, 73 - 73039 Tricase (LE) - Italy www.youcanprint.it info@youcanprint.it Facebook: facebook.com/youcanprint.it Twitter: twitter.com/youcanprintit ISBN: 978-88-31654-74-6 Prima edizione italiana, dicembre 2019. Il progetto è stato possibile grazie a:
Società Storica e Antropologica di Valle Camonica
Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica
www.ssavalcam.it
www.cmvallecamonica.bs.it
Euro Sider Scalo
Cassa Padana Area Camuna www.cassapadana.it
2
Indice
Introduzione
pag.
5
»
9
»
17
»
47
La rovina del Goglio a Gromo e Valgoglio nel 1666
»
59
La valanga di Bergemoletto del 19 marzo 1755
»
77
Le «memorie» della frana di Gero e Barcone in Valsassina del 1762
»
95
Il grande incendio di Bagolino del 1779
»
111
Nascita e scomparsa del lago di Valle delle Messi o «dei Silissi» in alta Valle Camonica nel 1784
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123
»
135
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147
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165
»
193
Parte I - Disastri e comunità alpine 1.
La vulnerabilità sociale fra saperi locali e percezioni di rischio Gianluca Ligi
2.
Le alluvioni del 1520-1521 in Valle Camonica Ivan Faiferri
3.
La frana che cancellò Piuro in Valchiavenna nel 1618 Guido Scaramellini
4.
Gabriele Medolago
5.
Gianpaolo Fassino 6.
Marco Sampietro 7.
Giancarlo Marchesi
8.
Giancarlo Maculotti 9.
La frana di Sernio in Valtellina del 1807 Gianluigi Garbellini
10.
La furia del Mallero colpisce Sondrio: 27 agosto 1834 Loris De Nardi
11
Il «furioso straripamento» del Mella in Valtrompia nel 1850 Giovanni Boccingher
12.
Il disastro della diga del Gleno: 1° dicembre 1923 Luca Giarelli
3
»
221
»
235
»
247
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257
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287
»
301
Bibliografia
»
319
Abstracts
»
339
13.
Il disastro dimenticato della diga di Molare: 13 agosto 1935 Vittorio Bonaria
14.
La valle di Primiero nell'alluvione del 1966 Angelo Longo
15.
Il nemico invisibile della miniera di Prestavel nella Val di Stava (13 luglio 1985) Linda Armano
16.
L’incendio di Sellero del 1997 Alina Baisini
17.
L’importanza dei nomi di luogo per la memoria storica delle catastrofi. Il caso dell’area del Monte Bianco Elisabetta Dall’Ò
18.
«Estraordinarie impressioni di foco comparse nell'aria». Fenomeni meteorologici ignei e capitelli nella Terraferma veneta del Settecento Niccolò Caramel
Parte II - Appendice
4
Abstracts 1. Social vulnerability between local knowledge and risk perceptions The essay criticizes the idea that there are so-called natural disasters, i.e. lacking any connection with human action. The socio-cultural concept of disaster is based instead on the consideration that a disaster is always a dynamic process, which has a long incubation period. The essay reflects on the importance of studying the cultural, political, economic, ideological preconditions of the disaster to create models of social vulnerability, such as in the case of the mountain community at the foot of Mount Usu, in the village of Toyako Onsen (Japan), in which the links between explosive volcanism, thermal springs and Shintoism are expressed in the local perception of the mountain. 2. The floods in Valle Camonica between 1520-1521 The essay illustrates the specific methods of prevention, reaction and adaptation to natural disasters by mountain communities during the early modern period. In particular, on the basis of already published studies, of chronicles and archive documents, the natural disasters that most commonly affected the alpine territories are identified, also making comparisons with the conclusions reached by the scholars of climate history. 3. The landslide that wiped out Piuro in Valchiavenna in 1618 On the 4th September 1618 (the 25th August according to the old calendar) a landslide wiped out the village of Piuro in Valbregaglia, the territory along with Val San Giacomo and the plain itself which forms Valchiavenna in the north of Lombardy. It is estimated that the death toll reached a total of more than a thousand people. At that time Piuro was well known as a centre for merchants and financiers. The reasons behind the tragedy it was considered - in accordance with the mindset of the time – to be a punishment from God for the degenerate lifestyle of the inhabitants. Nowadays the scholars argues that a large quantity of water which had fallen in the previous days provoked the detachment of rock from the upper section of the mountain. 4. The ruin of the Goglio stream at Gromo and Valgoglio in 1666 On 1st November 1666 a landslide blocked the Goglio stream. The water, which was in flood, devastated the levee flooding the land of Gromo. The church of St. Rocco and the chapel of St. Croce, 17 houses, 4 barns or stables, 5 forges, 9 millstones, an olive oil press, almost all the factories from the Serio river to the Masserola area under Novazza area, two bridges, the road to Cornalta in the Cusdura area were destroyed. Many territories were devastated. The consequences were of long duration: an important population decrease, modification on the territory, very strong drop in the number of factories. The Venetian Senate granted tax exemptions to the two municipalities several times for over a century. 339
Abstracts
5. The Bergemoletto avalanche of March 19th 1755 On the 19th of March 1755, the alpine village of Bergemoletto (Demonte municipality, Cuneo province) was engulfed by an avalanche which buried many of its houses. Even though it was no more exceptional than many similar tragedies, this avalanche differed because three women, who were entombed in a small stable by the snow, were rescued – still alive – on the 25th of April, after they have endured a «long night» of 37 days. This extraordinary survival, perhaps the only one ever documented, was investigated by doctors and scientists of that time. One of them, Ignazio Somis, professor of medicine at the University of Turin, published a detailed book about the avalanche in 1758, including a clinical account of the three women who survived it. The traumatic experience of the three women of Bergemoletto became part of Piedmontese oral history and during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was recounted by authors such as Cesare Cantù, Michele Lessona, Luigi Vaccarone, Bernardo Chiara and more recently, by Pietro Spirito, giving it its rightful importance. 6 . The «memories» of the landslide of Gero and Barcone in Valsassina in 1762 On November 15th 1762, a landslide broke off from Mount Agrella damaging the villages of Gero and Barcone (hamlets of Primaluna municipality), wiping out the first, including the church, and only partially the second one. In that disaster 115 people died (90 of Gero and 25 of Barcone) buried under the rubble of their homes and 400 animals were killed there. In this study the documentary, bibliographic, literary, material, toponymic and photographic «memories» of the most terrible landslide that struck Valsassina are reviewed. Among the documentary sources stand out two chronicles on the disaster: the first wrote by Don Buzzoni, parish priest of Primaluna, and the second one wrote by Ambrogio Chiesa Milesi, chancellor. 7. The great fire of Bagolino in 1779 The evening of the 30th October 1779 Bagolino, a big village in the Brescian area, was damaged by a terrible fire that originated from the storages of vegetable charcoal located near the melting furnace. In few hours hundreds of inhabitants died, entire families were completely extinguished and as many as 644 houses were incinerated. Only few houses, in addition to the melting furnace and forges, survived, but important family fortunes were completely destroyed and hundreds of people lost their possessions. Help reached the scene of the fire immediately: the mayor of the Community of Valle Sabbia did his best to help Bagolino and the «captain» of Brescia sent his own representative and help. A few days after that tragic night, it was clear that the Bagolino fire was – in terms of number of victims and material losses – one of the greatest disasters of that century for Brescian area.
340
Abstracts
8. Birth and disappearance of the lake of Valle delle Messi or “dei Silissi” in upper Valle Vamonica in 1784 The heavy rains of June 1784 caused the fall of a large landslide in St. Apollonia, a hamlet of Ponte di Legno in upper Valle Camonica. The description of the rainstorm reached us since the priest of that time, don Bortolo Veclani, described the event in detail and his testimony can be consulted through manuscripts and thanks to the book published by Bonifacio Favallini in the late nineteenth century. It was not a very deep lake and it was buried in about a century. Nowadays, however, there is a large marshy area. 9. The landslide of Sernio in Valtellina in 1807 During the night between 7th and 8th December 1807 a big landslide came off from the Masuccio Mountain (2820 mt). It caused the death of four people and destroyed vineyards, five mills, four machines for pressing grapes and rural houses. The slide blocked the Adda river and formed a lake, whose waters overrun the countryside and reached the houses of Lovero. There was a great fear for the dam burst as the means to drain the water were inadequate. On 16th May 1808 early in the morning the melting snow on the mountains and the increased pressure in the lake caused the sudden collapse of the dam. A furious mass of muddy water reached Tirano, dragged the bridge and destroyed houses. Cellars, streets, houses and rural areas were covered in mud and water. The environmental damage was horrifying. The state - the Napoleonic Italian Kingdom – reimbursed the families of Sernio for the lost of their vineyards. Tirano had to pay for the reconstruction of the Adda river banks, while the wounded mountain continued to be under the threat of other landslides. 10. The rampage of Mallero stream hits Sondrio: 27th August 1834 Between 27th and 28th August 1834 the stream Mallero overflowed ruinously, flooding the city of Sondrio. What did cause the tragic event? Most likely it was the deforestation of the valley, started in previous decades. The study of this specific catastrophic event, such as the identification of the human intervention that caused it, allow us to demonstrate that disasters could be considered historical processes. In fact, these events are the result of a situation of previous vulnerability, built over time by the population itself. Moreover, as demonstrated by now by an abundant historiography, the disasters are not natural, but they are the result of incorrect territorial and urban policies, responsible for exposing society to the threats of natural origin otherwise harmless. 11. The «terrible overflowing» of the river Mella in Valtrompia in 1850 Valtrompia was hit on the night between 14th and 15th August 1850 by a flood which caused the appalling overflowing of the Mella river. The essay reconstructs the reaction of media, politics and population in the days immediately following the disaster, both locally and extraterritorially. The study analyzes some infrastructural and administrative attempts that were undertaken to prevent the serious economic damages related to such disastrous events, not without the resistance from some citizens. 341
Abstracts
12. The disaster of the Gleno dam: 1st December 1923 The collapse of the Gleno dam took place in the morning of 1st December 1923. The water, that overflowed from the reservoir, poured down Valle di Scalve and Valle Camonica, causing destruction along about 30 km and the death of over three hundred people. The paper illustrates the timing of the construction of the dam, reports the first testimonies shortly after the disaster and describes the phases of the successive process, relying primarily on the documents kept in the State Archives of Bergamo. 13. The forgotten disaster of the Molare dam: 13th August 1935 Between 1919 and 1925 the Officine Elettriche Genovesi (O.E.G.) Society built a hydroelectric plant in the municipality of Molare (Piedmont). The reservoir created by the barrage of the Torrent Orba (hydrographic basin of the River Po) by means of two dams, had a capacity of 18 million m3. On the morning of 13th August 1935, after nearly ten years of operation, the rock sill on which one of the two dams had been constructed – named secondary Dam of Sella Zerbino – collapsed following a heavy rainstorm. The failure caused the sudden emptying of the reservoir and a large amount of water poured into the underlying valley, wreaking havoc along the whole course of the Torrent Orba as far as its confluence with the River Bormida, some 50 km away, near the town of Alessandria. At least 111 people lost their lives in the disaster. The criminal trial held by the Turin Court in 1938 returned a verdict of acquittal for the managers of the O.E.G. and the designer of the plant. 14. The valley of Primiero in the flooding of 1966 The flood in 1966 devastated the valley of Primiero and killed 5 people. The events of those days of November still remain in the collective memory of the population. Starting in July 2016, 19 video interviews were collected to constitute, together with other oral sources in some local archives, the first body of oral history about the topic. This short paper attempts to examine the social vulnerability and the perception of risk in the face of the event. In fact from the memories several significant social aspects appears, such as the reliance on previous events, the socio-economic and institutional transformation during the 1960’s, the annulment of the current risk perception. These are all aspects that have conditioned, and can still condition today, choices and reactions in front of a dangerous event. 15. The invisible enemy of the Prestavel mine in Val di Stava (13th July 1985) On the 19th of July 1985 at 12.22 pm the tailing ponds of the fluorite mine located into Mount Prestavel, in Val di Stava, collapsed. Investigations carried out about this disaster firstly listed earthquakes and mining explosions among the causes of the collapse, but then they focused on the tailing ponds, where the water wore their thin sides. Concerning disasters, we tend to forget the importance of historic- social – cultural aspects in favour of more technical and physical ones. The aim of this study is to underline the socio- cultural causes, that is to say how social institutions helped to build the risk perception and the assignment of fault after the tragic event in Val di Stava. 342
Abstracts
16. The fire of Sellero in 1997 The aim of this paper is to remember the great fire that destroyed the woods of Sellero, in Valle Camonica, on April 1997. Twenty years after this event, the students of the middle school of Cedegolo collected the accounts of some of the people who experienced this disaster under the direction of their teacher Alina Baisini, author of this paper. This essay is divided in three sections. In the first one the facts are displayed as objectively as possible using the official reports and the newspapers’ articles. In the second section the event is told from the points of view of the people who were involved (the interviews can be read in full in the appendix of this paper); the third and last section is dedicated to the poem Dal föch curì, that expresses in a clear and meaningful way the experience and the emotions of the entire community. 17. The importance of the place names for the historical memory of catastrophes. the case of the Mont Blanc area Place names are a linguistic expression of the specific relation between the environment and its inhabitants. Their use can serve as a means for relaying ideological meaning about time and space and can therefore play a role in the process of placemaking itself. Toponyms, therefore, identify the knowledge that past generations have assigned to such places. The alpine region is described, named, and «recognized», throughout a large variety of toponyms that communities have created on purpose to remark places, to protect, to exploit, but also to avoid. The Mont Blanc area shares extremes consequences of climate changes with other alpine regions. It’s characterized by a huge variety of extreme natural phenomena: avalanche disasters, landslides and flooding, events that are becoming increasingly common and more and more frequently due to weather instability. Some ancient place names in Valle d’Aosta have maintained a significance related to «natural risks» as potential disasters, or already happened disasters and catastrophes. 18. «extraordinary impressions of fire appeared in the air». meteorological igneous phenomena and wayside shrines in the venetian mainland of the 18th century Between 1706 and 1754 a series of catastrophic meteorological phenomena continuous and unexplained fires, falling meteors and emission of sulfur-bituminous gas - tormented some villages in the territory between Bassano del Grappa and Castelfranco Veneto. The peasants, culturally far away from the theoretical proposals advanced by the naturalists and deeply tied to Catholic and rural knowledge, tried to solve the problem by themselves requiring the thaumaturgical intervention of the patron saints against fires and for the protection of livestock through the creation of wayside shrines dedicated to them.
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