Marchesini Power Plant

The jump known as “Salto dei Marchesini” of S. Quirico has a long and eventful history, which is unfortunately difficult to reconstruct. However, we may be fair to assume that the water of the Agno river in this stretch provided the energy required for the operations of some proto-industrial factories, at least starting from the eighteenth century.

The first request concerning the use of the force of the stream in a more rational and systematic way dates back to 1893. It was made on behalf of the Dal Lago company in order to “use the water of the Agno river for the production of hydroelectric energy”. The company was run by Giovanni Battista and Camillo, “courageous undertakers of initiatives for the construction of bridges, buildings, road maintenance, mines”, as A. Fornasa defined these two gentlemen in the early twentieth century, who were also interested in the production of hydroelectric energy.

The project (later revised in 1901) required the use of the waters of the Agno river (first intake work) and its right tributary, the Torrazzo (second intake work). An over one-kilometer long diverting channel would transfer the water to a loading chamber of about 40m3, then to a short forced conduit, and finally to the two horizontal axis Francis turbines housed on the ground floor of a three-storey building. The water would then return directly to the Roggia Marzotto (Maglio di Sopra power station).

The hydroelectric plant also transferred its energy to some factories in the nearby Val Leogra. These connections were bound to become stronger when the Dal Lago company sold the new power plant to the Electricity Company of Scledense (1906), which in turn sold it to Marzotto in 1912 who eventually added the crucial junction of S. Quirico into its energy strategy.

The plant, now owned by Eusebio Energia, is currently in operation.