The Vajont is a tributary of the Piave River, flowing near the small municipality of Longarone, in the province of Belluno, after carving a deep gorge, known as the Vajont, among the most beautiful in the Alps, between Mount Toc and Mount Salta. During Italy's economic boom at the end of the 1950s, an engineering marvel was created in this area: a dam, celebrated as the largest in Europe. The construction site was opened in January 1957 and the work was inaugurated in 1959. The private construction company, Sade (Società Adriatica di elettricità), during the construction phase, did not consider the risks of landslides and seismic events in the area and ignored the warnings from those who knew the area well. Calls for intervention and reports of risks would continue to be ignored for years. The builders believed they could keep the situation under control and that any potential problems would not be of extreme relevance.
On the evening of October 9, 1963, a landslide consisting of several million cubic meters occurs: the dam remains intact, but a real tsunami surges over Longarone: the town is swept away with over two thousand dead.
The force and impact of the water were so strong that many of the victims were found without clothes, swept away by the displacement. We relive those dramatic moments through images of the time, for a tragedy considered one of the most severe natural disasters of the entire century.
