__NOTOC__ 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 ''Piora'' is a genus of Papuasian plants in the tribe Astereae within the family Asteraceae. The only known species is ''Piora ericoides'', which is native to the island of New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , ...

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 Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a government institution, but since 1999 it has been a special stock corpo ...

) 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 __NOTOC__ Lake Cadagno (Italian: ''Lago di Cadagno'') is a meromictic lake in the Piora valley (canton of Ticino), Switzerland. As one of a few meromictic lakes in Europe, it is the object of numerous scientific studies. The Piora valley - located ...

and

Lago di Tom __NOTOC__ Lago di Tom is a lake in the Piora Valley, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. Its surface area is . It is located at an altitude of 2,021m, reaching above the tree line. See also *List of mountain lakes of Switzerland References ...

, 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 Austria ...

similar to the nearby

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 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), Aar River), with an upper terminus at the Gelmersee lake, above. With an i ...

(106%).

References

External links

Lago Ritom
- tourist information
Ritom funicular

Lakes of Ticino Reservoirs in Switzerland {{ticino-lake-stub