The Dam
Arriving in this area one is enchanted by the water’s majesty and power: here water is the star of the show. The complexity of the watercourses between the natural river and the artificial canals is fascinating.
In this area human ingenuity tamed the water, creating one of the major water works in Lombardy.
Here the waters of the Ticino River are diverted to form two essential canals: the Villoresi Canal, created for agricultural irrigation and the Industrial Canal, fundamental for the production of electricity. It took Eugenio Villoresi many years of study and drafting before the final project was approved.
The Panperduto Dam on the Ticino River and the masterpiece of canal works connected to it were finally opened in 1884. The Villoresi Canal has completely transformed the area by fertilizing the land that became fundamental to the agriculture in the countryside to the north of Milan.
A few years later, at the beginning of the 1900s, the second canal known as the Industrial Canal was also opened thanks to advances in the production and distribution of electricity. It originates from the same hydraulic complex of the Villoresi Canal and it is used to this day to power several hydroelectric power stations built along its course.
