Mattmarksee

Highest Erdschüttdamm of Switzerland

The Mattmarksee is a reservoir and is located on the territory of the villages of Saas -Almagell, Saas -Balen, Saas -Grund and Saas -Fee at the southern end of the Saas Valley in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

History

Natural Vorgängersee

Before the construction of the dam, there was a lake in the valley of the young Saas Vispa. Its changing shape and size depended on the advances and retreats of the Allalin. One of the highs of the glacier extent around 1600, 1820 and 1850/60 the tongue of the down -reaching from the western side Allalin covered the entire valley width, thus forming a natural glacier dam. In the melting of the barrier there were several catastrophic Seeausbrüchen. According to chronicles in the years 1589, 1633, 1680 and 1772 particularly severe flash floods have destroyed the villages and pastures in the Saas Valley. The Flood of 1633 forced several families to emigrate. Others worked for years on the reclamation of the valley and vowed not to marry until the work is completed. In the next 14 years not only wedding took place in the parish of Saas. The outbreaks in 1589 and 1633 ranged up to Visp and ravaged there, the land of culture. At the outbreak of 1680 even 18 houses were destroyed in Visp. To avoid such disasters, they wanted to build a 1900 underground drain. But the means were lacking.

Artificial reservoir

On March 25, 1959 took place at the Hotel Beau-Site in Saas -Fee the establishment of power plants Matt Mark AG, Saas -Grund, instead. The reservoir is located on the territories of the four communities in Saas Saas -Almagell, Saas -Balen, Saas -Fee and Saas -Grund. The territorial sovereignty was transferred for legal reasons the municipality of Saas- Almagell.

From 1960 to 1965 construction continued the dam. On August 30, 1965 88 construction workers were by a glacier crash Allalin buried under 500,000 cubic meters of ice and found so her death. No other lake in Switzerland, called for the construction of so many victims, a memorial stone at her. The inauguration of the dam took place on June 25, 1969 by Bishop Nestor Adam on the dam.

In spring 2007, the dam was the first time completely drained to perform audits of the systems. Since, however, the earlier onset than usual snowmelt could not foresee, the work had to be stopped early, so in February / March 2008, a complete emptying of the lake was needed again.