Contra Dam

Where it sits. The Contra Dam, known locally and to most visitors as the Verzasca Dam, closes the mouth of the Val Verzasca in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, roughly ten kilometres north of Locarno and Lake Maggiore. It is an arch dam of double curvature, 220 metres high with a crest 380 metres long, tapering from about 25 metres thick at the base to seven at the top. It holds back the Verzasca river to form the Lago di Vogorno, a narrow reservoir of some 105 million cubic metres pinned between steep granite walls. A public road crosses the crest, which is what makes it approachable: you can walk out to the middle, lean on the parapet and look straight down 220 metres of smooth concrete into the gorge.

The story behind it. The dam was built between 1961 and 1965 for hydroelectric generation, delivering water through a pressure tunnel to the Verzasca power station at Gordola on the valley floor. It is among the highest dams in Switzerland, behind the Grande Dixence, Mauvoisin and Luzzone, and its arch form allowed a very slender structure by transferring load into the flanking rock rather than resisting the reservoir by mass alone. Construction flooded the lower valley and required the relocation of hamlets, a familiar Alpine trade of settlement for power that is still argued about locally. The reservoir now also serves flood control for the lower Verzasca, and controlled releases from the dam are a genuine hazard for anyone in the riverbed downstream, which is why sirens and warning signs line the gorge.

On screen. The dam opens GoldenEye (1995) with what remains one of the most celebrated stunts in cinema. In the pre-title sequence, Bond — Pierce Brosnan's first appearance in the role — walks onto the crest at night, clips on and steps off backwards, falling 220 metres down the face before firing a piton gun into the floor of the fictional Arkhangelsk chemical-weapons plant below. The jump was performed for real by the British stuntman Wayne Michaels in 1994, using an elasticated cord rigged to the crest, and it was widely voted the best film stunt of all time in later polls. The location does more than supply a drop: the featureless concrete gives the shot no visual reference for scale until Bond passes the mid-point, which is exactly what makes it read as terrifying rather than impressive. The film gave the structure a second life, and its Bond association is now the main reason most visitors make the short drive up from Locarno.

What you actually see today. Since 2007 a commercial operation has run bungee jumps from the same crest, at 220 metres one of the highest fixed-structure jumps anywhere and marketed explicitly on the GoldenEye connection; jumps run at weekends from around Easter to October with weekday slots in high summer, and are booked in advance. Non-jumpers get the walk across the crest, a viewing point at each end and the reservoir stretching north. The valley behind is the real reward. The Verzasca runs over polished grey and white granite in a series of pools so clear that the river is a known freshwater diving site; at Lavertezzo the twin-arched stone Ponte dei Salti, built in the seventeenth century, spans the water at its most photogenic point. Corippo, a stone hamlet of stacked roofs upstream, was for years the smallest municipality in Switzerland before the valley communes merged in 2020. Sonogno closes the head of the valley, and the Sentierone footpath links the villages along the whole length of it, roughly 25 kilometres of old mule track that can be walked in sections with the postbus doing the return. Look at the roofs as you go: the Verzasca's houses are built and roofed in the same grey gneiss as the riverbed, split into heavy slabs called piode, which is why the villages appear to grow out of the rock rather than sit on it.

Getting there and timing. From Locarno, postbus line 321 runs up the Val Verzasca and stops at the dam in about 20 minutes; by car it is a short climb on the road towards Vogorno with parking at either end of the crest. Trains reach Locarno from Zurich in around three hours, or from Milan via Bellinzona. April to October is the practical window: the road is kept open in winter but the bungee operation closes and the valley is in deep shade. Summer weekends bring heavy traffic on a narrow valley road and packed swimming spots at Lavertezzo, so early mornings are far better. Do not swim below the dam without checking release schedules, and treat the riverbed's polished granite with respect — it is slick and the current is fast.