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Lago Ritom is a
lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
in the
Piora valley,
Ticino
Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. The natural lake is used as a
reservoir
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation.
Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
by the Swiss Federal Railways (
SBB-CFF-FFS) to generate hydro-electric power for the
Gotthard line. The first dam was built in 1918 and, in 1950, its height was increased by 23 m.
Overview
The lake's surface area is 1.49 km² at an elevation of 1850 m. With
Lake Cadagno and
Lago di Tom, it is one of the main lakes in the Piora valley.
Before being used as a reservoir, Lake Ritom was a
meromictic lake similar to the nearby
Lake Cadagno.
Transport
The lake can be reached by
funicular
A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...
from
Piotta 786 m below. The track with a length of 1,369 m has a
maximum inclination of 87.8%,
History of Ritom funicular
/ref> the highest in Europe after the Gelmerbahn funicular (106%).
See also
* List of lakes of Switzerland
*List of mountain lakes of Switzerland
This is a list of high-altitude lakes of Switzerland. It includes all significant lakes located either entirely or partly in Switzerland, both natural and artificial, with an area of at least 4 ha (9.9 acres) and a location at over above sea l ...
References
External links
Lago Ritom
- tourist information
Ritom funicular
Lakes of Ticino
Reservoirs in Switzerland
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