Lago dell'Antenna is an

artificial lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

in north-west

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, located in the

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

(

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

). Concerned

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

s are

Urbe Urbe ( Genoese: , locally or ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Savona in the Italian region Liguria, located about northwest of Genoa and about northeast of Savona. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 847 and an are ...

and

Sassello Sassello (; locally ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Savona in the Italian region Liguria, located about west of Genoa and about north of Savona in the northern side of the Ligurian Apennines. It is the birthplace of Blessed ...

Geography

The lake was created by blocking the Orba with a dam about two kilometres upstream of San Pietro d'

, in order to produce electricity. Its name comes from Monte Antenna (821 m), a mountain which overlooks the

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

s of the lake. The right banks of the reservoir are flanked by the provincial road nr. 40 ''Urbe - Vara - Passo del Faiallo'' and from ''Bric del Sozzo'' (650 m). The lake is located on the northern border of

Parco naturale regionale del Beigua The Beigua Natural Regional Park (in Italian ''Parco naturale regionale del Beigua'') is a natural park located in province of Savona and the Metropolitan City of Genoa, both in Liguria (Italy). It's the largest protected area of Liguria, the regi ...

, which encompasses its left shore.

History

Antenna lake was realised in 1922 in order to provide water to the hydroelectric power plant of the ''Cotonificio Ligure'', located in San Pietro d'Orba. During the 1940s the reservoir capacity was considered insufficient and started dam extension works which ended in 1946, bringing the reservoir capacity up to around 50.000 m³. Present-day dam is a masonry arch-gravity dam; it finally inspection took place in February 1952. Nowadays the reservoir capacity is restricted by the

sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to th ...

on the lake bed and is estimated to be around 30,000 m³.

Fishing

Lake Antenna is classified, following

Province of Savona The province of Savona (; Ligurian language, Ligurian: ''provinsa de Sann-a'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Savona, which has a population of 61,219 inhabitants. The province has a ...

fishing map, as a B category water body (''Acque di categoria B''), thus ''mixed population'' water. The lake is also defined as touristic fishing reserve (''riserva di pesca turistica''), and is restocked with

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

s when authorised by Parco del Beigua. Restocking with

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

s is not permitted because they are not considered native fish. The lake is the subject of a yearly fauna survey. Access rules are defined by Provincia di Savona administration.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dell Antenna Reservoirs in Italy Lakes of Liguria Lago dell'Antenna