• Ravedis dam
• Ravedis Bridge
• Former construction site
• Mount Jouf fold
• Vivaro canal

RAVEDIS DAM

We are at the bottom of the dam and from here we can see just one part of the imposing barrier, specifically the large bottom outlets and the stilling basin. As a matter of fact, the massive wall of the dam is mostly hidden by the northern flank of the Castle hill. The concrete gravity dam, about 90 meters high, was built for producing electricity, for irrigation purposes and flood lamination. In fact, there were floods in the past (i.e. in 1966) which had devastating consequences for both inhabitants and crops of the Pordenone and eastern Veneto areas. The construction of this big hydraulic work began in 1986 and ended in 2014, it was troubled and it took a long time: it was interrupted several times due to the lack of funding and to the geo-structural problems that had emerged. The construction of the dam is one of the most important hydraulic works carried out in northern Italy in the last decades. It was part of the ingenious and futuristic project started in the late 1800s, which aimed at using the water of the Cellina river for the production of electricity and for irrigation purposes.
Bibliography:
• Con l'acqua del Cellina. Un omaggio a un secolo di lavoro della gente della Valcellina, a cura di Piero Pinamonti, Udine, Forum, 2008.
• D. Schettini, Ravedis. Una storia mai raccontata, Pordenone, L'Omino Rosso, 2006.
• L. Zin, Il torrente Cellina e la diga di Ravedis. Cento anni di opere per l'utilizzo delle risorse idriche e la difesa del suolo, Pordenone, Consorzio di Bonifica Cellina Meduna, 2014.
Webliography:
• https://www.progettodighe.it/main/le-dighe/article/ravedis
• http://www.regione.fvg.it/rafvg/comunicati/comunicato…

RAVEDIS BRIDGE

If we look up, we can see the Ravedis Bridge, which connects Maniago to Montereale. It was built in the early 20s. The bridge, which is composed of just one big arch, replaced the previous connection ways: an unstable wooden foot-bridge that could not always be used because of the floods of the Cellina river, and a strong iron bridge built in 1878, which was composed of a segmental arch with an 83-meter span. At the time it was built, it was considered a futuristic bridge because of the hazardous structural calculations needed to built it. It was destroyed by the Italian military engineers during the withdrawal of Caporetto and immediately rebuilt in wood by the Austro-Hungarian forces, who were chasing them. In 1808, a covered wooden bridge, similar to the famous bridge in Bassano del Grappa, was supposed to be built, but never was. The structures of the 1878 bridge and that of today’s bridge were very useful to accommodate a pipe (in the late 1800s) aimed at bringing the water of a stream from the left to the right side of the Cellina river. This was the first channelization carried out in the village of Montereale. It was then spread to the neighbouring hamlets.
Bibliography:
• La porta della Valcellina. Montereale Valcellina, Grizzo, Malnisio, San Leonardo Valcellina, appunti di viaggio, a cura di Patrizio De Mattio, Montereale Valcellina, Comune di Montereale Valcellina, 2003.
• L. Zin, Il Cellina, 2, Pordenone, Consorzio di Bonifica "Cellina-Meduna", 1997.
• Storia dell'ingegneria strutturale in Italia, a cura di Tullia Iori e Sergio Poretti, Gangemi Editore, 2011, Architettura e costruzione, SIXXI, 1.
• L. Zin, Il torrente Cellina e la diga di Ravedis. Cento anni di opere per l'utilizzo delle risorse idriche e la difesa del suolo, Pordenone, Consorzio di Bonifica Cellina Meduna, 2014.

FORMER CONSTRUCTION SITE floodplain

The former construction site is the gravel road we followed to come here. It was made during the construction of the Ravedis dam. During the building, when you drove on the Ravedis Bridge and you looked down, you could see a lot of activity going on between the various storage and preparation areas: there were a lot of moving vehicles and materials and a long belt conveyor system used to bring aggregates – stocked in different kinds of hoppers according to the grain size – to the upstream concrete plant. The construction of the dam has strongly modified the geo-naturalistic scenery and the morphology of the area. In fact, the dam engulfed the ancient river bank protections, the massive rock known as piera magnadoria, which outcropped upstream the Ravedis Bridge, and also some works that belonged to the pioneering project of the building of the Malnisio Hydroelectric Power Plant and of the Valcellina road, started in the early 1900s.
Bibliography:
• Con l'acqua del Cellina. Un omaggio a un secolo di lavoro della gente della Valcellina, a cura di Piero Pinamonti, Udine, Forum, 2008.
• L. Zin, Il torrente Cellina e la diga di Ravedis. Cento anni di opere per l'utilizzo delle risorse idriche e la difesa del suolo, Pordenone, Consorzio di Bonifica Cellina Meduna, 2014.
 

MOUNT JOUF FOLD

Thanks to the erosion of the Cellina river where it reaches the upper plain, now we can see an asymmetrical one-kilometre fold on the slope of Mount Jouf, downstream the Ravedis gorge. This anticline (a concave down fold) can be perfectly seen from the road that goes up to the Montereale Castle or from the parking near the San Rocco church, next to the cemetery.
From where we stand now, the stratification seems to be vertical: we are looking at the southern slope of the fold. Following the stratification up, we can see the layers folding towards the north and their inclination reducing until becoming horizontal. This fold of rocks (limestone from the Cretaceous) has been generated by crustal thrusts, which caused the lifting of this part of the Alps. The same thrusts have also created some thrust faults, where portions of the crust are overlapping one to the other (the entire fold is one of these portions). One of these thrust faults extends for dozens of kilometres along the Carnic Prealps: Montelonga, Mount Fara and Mount Jouf go towards the south and overlap more recent rocks, which have been buried by the floods that took place in the upper plain. For this reason, this fold is called “Ramp anticline of Mount Jouf.” This is one of the 184 sites of geological interest (Geosites) of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.

VIVARO CANAL
(the sharp horizontal line just above the road towards Maniago)

Looking at the flank of Mount Jouf, we can see the first part of the canal, which is the sharp horizontal line just above the road towards Maniago. It dates back to the early 1900s. The Vivaro canal has an ancient history to be found in documents dating back to the mid-1300s. The water intake on the Cellina river was in a place called Fous (outside the village of Maniagolibero, on the road to Montereale). From there, the canal followed the left bank of the river, crossed the wide dry grassland (Magredi) until reaching Vivaro, and finally disappeared on the shore of the Meduna river. The canal was initially built for domestic and irrigation purposes and to water animals, but it soon became an energy source to move the water wheels of various plants (mills, trip hammers in hammer mills and sawmills) built near the intake, the existing Giulio Bridge and the last segment of the canal, in Vivaro. In the early 1900s, the canal was included in the important construction project of the Malnisio Hydroelectric Power Plant. Thus, the intake was moved upwards and a new segment, which reached Maniagolibero, was built (the above mentioned horizontal line). Due to a more rational use and distribution of water, strictly linked to the irrigation needs, the first segment of the Vivaro canal was abandoned in 1956. In the last decades, also the remaining segment of the canal has become obsolete because of the new water diversion and pumping systems.
Bibliography:
• L. Zin, Il Cellina, 2, Pordenone, Consorzio di Bonifica "Cellina-Meduna", 1997.
Webliography:
• http://www.comune.vivaro.pn.it/index.php?id=10604
• https://www.progettodighe.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=910&start=20