Verzasca Dam (Contra Dam)
Talsperre Contra
Interesting facts
- Filling the reservoir set off a swarm of small earthquakes, at times up to 25 shocks a day, which faded only by 1971 and caused no damage.
- The GoldenEye leap, performed by British stuntman Wayne Michaels, was voted the best movie stunt of all time in a 2002 Sky Movies poll.
- In GoldenEye the Swiss dam stands in for a Soviet chemical weapons facility near Arkhangelsk.
- The wall contains about 660,000 cubic metres of concrete and tapers from 25 metres thick at the base to just 7 metres at the crest.
- Because the site lies lower than most Swiss dams, crews could pour concrete year-round, at a peak rate of 3,100 cubic metres in a single day.
- The concrete was made with gneiss quarried beside the site and cooled while setting by steel pipes threaded through almost the whole mass.
- Its designer, the engineer Giovanni Lombardi, counted it among his most beautiful dams for the slenderness and clean lines of its arch.
- It is the fourth-tallest dam in Switzerland, and its two spillways can together release up to 2,150 cubic metres of water per second.
- In 2022 an artificial climbing wall on the dam face hosted Red Bull Dual Ascent, the first competition climbing event in a multi-pitch format.
- The dam also appears in the climax of the 2013 Bollywood action film Dhoom 3.
Why it is worth it
The Contra Dam, better known simply as the Verzasca Dam, closes the mouth of the Verzasca valley in Ticino with a single curved wall of concrete 220 metres high and 380 metres long across the crest. It was built between 1961 and 1965, and behind it lies Lago di Vogorno, a long green reservoir holding around 105 million cubic metres of water that feeds a hydroelectric plant with three Francis turbines and an output of about 105 megawatts. Below it, the Verzasca river runs on toward Lake Maggiore.
What makes the dam worth the detour is the way engineering and landscape meet here. The arch is thin and pale, pressed between steep wooded rock walls, and the drop on the downstream side is so sheer that looking over the parapet is a genuine test of nerves. On the other side the reservoir reaches back into the mountains, and the Verzasca valley beyond it — with its stone villages and famously clear green water — is one of the loveliest in southern Switzerland. The crest is open to walkers, so you can cross the full 380 metres and take in both views.
The dam became world-famous in 1995, when the opening scene of the James Bond film GoldenEye showed a leap from its crest on a bungee cord. The 220-metre jump was real, and it turned the wall into a place of pilgrimage for thrill-seekers: a commercial bungee operation now runs from the dam, and many thousands of people have made the same jump since. Even without jumping, it is hard to stand on the crest without imagining it.
Getting there
The dam lies just above Tenero-Contra, about 5 km from Locarno. The Diga Verzasca stop on the PostBus line into the Verzasca valley serves it from Locarno and Tenero, and it can also be reached by car on the valley road. Lugano Airport (LUG) is about 22 km away in a straight line.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Lake Maggiore 15.0 km · lake
- Castelgrande 13.5 km · castle
- Verzasca 23.1 km · river
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Contra Dam, commonly known as the Verzasca Dam and the Locarno Dam, is an arch dam on the Verzasca River in the Val Verzasca of Ticino, Switzerland. The dam creates Lago di Vogorno 2 km (1.2 mi) upstream of Lake Maggiore and supports the 105 MW Verzasca hydroelectric power station. It was constructed between 1961 and 1965 and starting shortly after its reservoir was filled, a series of earthquakes related to its water load occurred until 1971. The dam is owned and operated by Verzasca SA and is the fourth tallest in Switzerland.
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