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Lago Ritom is a
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...
in the
Piora valley,
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
,
Switzerland. The natural lake is used as a
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...
by the Swiss Federal Railways (
SBB-CFF-FFS
Swiss Federal Railways (german: link=no, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, ''SBB''; french: link=no, Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses, ''CFF''; it, Ferrovie federali svizzere, ''FFS'') is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usuall ...
) to generate hydro-electric power for the
Gotthard line
The Gotthard railway (german: Gotthardbahn; it, Ferrovia del Gottardo) is the Swiss trans-alpine railway line from northern Switzerland to the canton of Ticino. The line forms a major part of an important international railway link between no ...
. 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
A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters.
The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austr ...
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 slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite e ...
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
The Gelmer Funicular is a cable railway in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. It links a lower terminus at Handegg, in the Haslital (the valley of the upper Aar River), with an upper terminus at the Gelmersee lake.
The Gelmerbahn was the steep ...
(106%).
See also
*List of lakes of Switzerland
This article contains a sortable table listing all major lakes of Switzerland. The table includes all still water bodies, natural or artificial, that have a surface area of at least , regardless of water volume, maximum depth or other metric. T ...
*List of mountain lakes of Switzerland
This is a list of high-altitude lakes in Switzerland. It includes all significant lakes, natural or artificial, with an area over 4 hectares and a height over 800 metres above sea level. This height approximately corresponds to the transit ...
References
External links
Lago Ritom
- tourist information
Ritom funicular
Lakes of Ticino
Reservoirs in Switzerland
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