The Cogolo hydroelectric plant is a fine example of industrial architecture from the 1920s, a period that launched the beginning of the so-called «hydroelectric epic» in Val di Peio and Trentino. Seamlessly integrated into a stunning natural landscape, this unique power station, deemed the most beautiful in Italy, looks more like an alpine hotel than a power plant. Its huge halls, finely decorated using the traditional Italian sgraffito technique, tell the story of how water is converted into clean energy.
On an external wall on one of the buildings in the power station complex stands the figure of San Giovanni Nepomuceno, protector from floods (work dated 1930 by L. Carelli). Built in 1929 on the fast-flowing Noce Bianco at the foot of the Ortles-Cevedale range and still fully operational today, the Cogolo power station has used the waters that rush down from the peaks of the Careser (more than 2600 metres above sea level, the site of the same-named dam) for almost a century. Those waters then pass through the Malga Mare power plant and down to the valley.
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