Navigation on the Panperduto dam basin: a short tour to discover a jewel of industrial hydraulics. This itinerary allows you to discover up close the secrets of how human ingenuity managed to tame water, building one of the most important hydraulic joints in Lombardy.
Starting from the Long Canale Villoresi in the locality of Panperduto, it is immediately possible to observe the majestic Dam. This work was inaugurated in 1884 by the project of Eugenio Villoresi, The canal, which was born here and which still today bears the name of its illustrious designer, has completely transformed the territory and the activities connected to it, making fertile an unproductive land and becoming fundamental in the agricultural economy of the countryside north of Milan.
Continuing the 1300-meter route, on the Ticino river you reach the Porto della Torre barrage where the hydroelectric power station of the same name is located, located at the mouth of Lake Maggiore.
Immersed in these territories, in addition to the immense works of engineering, there is the Museo delle Acque Italo <Svizzere, located on the island of Confurto, the ancient building, once used for maintenance equipment, has been renovated in order to grasp to the visitor the essentiality of water for human and natural life. A few steps from the museum is the “Garden of Water Games”, a play area designed to understand and experience the movement and power of water. Visitors can interact with the various installations present, creating a unique edutainment experience.
completes the experience of visiting the whole Panperduto complex, and the activities proposed for visiting schools and groups, reproducing in miniature one of the most important hydraulic junctions in Lombardy.
The navigation on the Panperduto Dam lasts about 50 minutes
Did you know that …?
There are several curiosities that can be found on the canals, here are some:
1) The Industrial Canal and the Villoresi Canal are born from this dam, thanks to which the waters of the Naviglio Grande are fed
2) Origin of the name: The first version derives from the meaning as “missing bread”, as the economic effort for its realization would not have brought the right benefits in terms of irrigation. The second version, on the other hand, is older and speaks of this locality as rich in dangerous rapids, where the boatmen, who transported goods to Milan, often, overturning, lost their cargo or “Pan Missed” or Panperduto
3) Inside the museum there is a 1: 1500 scale map of the territory, which goes from Sesto Calende, where the Ticino exits from Lake Maggiore, to Vizzola Ticino, at Malpensa Airport, south of the dam .
