Vogorno

Vogorno is the first village one comes across in the Verzasca Valley. It was founded on the foothills of the Pizzo Vogorno and is famous for its artificial lake created by the Selvatica dam (built between 1961 and 1965). It is 220 meters in altitude, making it one of the highest in Europe.

The township is made up of a number of hamlets: Berzona, San Antonio, Costa, Vogorno Centro-Pregossa, S. Bartolomeo, Costa Piana-Chiossi.
Vogorno boasts the oldest church in the Valley, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, which has very interesting Byzantine frescoes dating back to the early 13th century, depicting ten saints, lined up stiff and straight along the right-hand wall.
An historical point of interest: legend has it that when coming from Tenero there was a solid, enormous door at the ‘Gola della Porta’ that could close the valley off to the outside world.
A modern point of interest: at Odro above Vogorno, at 1,240 meters above sea level, there is a small ethnographic museum.

Altitude: 495 m a/s