The Stations of the Cross and the Commemorative Mass

The Stations of the Cross and the Commemorative Mass

In the first anniversary of the catastrophe, the Tesero Parish Church decided to honour the event with Stations of the Cross along the Stava valley and a commemorative Mass for the Victims. Since 1986, in the evening of 18th July, the eve of the anniversary of the disaster, the Stations of the Cross are held every year at the Palanca Chapel. During this celebration, religious hymns are sung and the names of the 268 Victims of the Stava disaster are read out aloud. On 19th July, the anniversary day, another commemorative Mass is celebrated at the Victims’ cemetery by the

The Anniversary

An anniversary is commonly known as an occasion in which people come together to relive past events, usually events of social, historical or cultural importance. Basically, a moment which for most of us represents the importance of memory. Every year, since 1986, in Tesero and in the whole Stava valley the 19th July is the day dedicated to the memory of this tragic event.

Bibliography

General bibliography on the Stava disaster, 1985(updating: 11th July 2020) ALEXANDER D.E. (1986) – Northern Italian dam failure and mudflow, July 1985. “Disasters”, Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 3-7, The International Journal of Disaster Studies and Practice, Foxcombe Publications, London. Also in: G. Tosatti (ed.) “A Review of the Scientific Contributions on the Stava Valley Disaster (Eastern Italian Alps), 19th July 1985”, Special Volume of the GNDCI-CNR, pp. 5-11, 2003, Pitagora Ed., Bologna. AZAM S. & LI Q. (2010) – Tailings Dam Failures: A Review of the Last One Hundred Years. Geotechnical News, no. 51, pp. 50-53, Richmond, Canada. BERLANDA

Educational Path/Travelling Exhibition

The travelling exhibition proposes the contents of the educational path organized at the Stava 1985 Information Centre. By means of short texts and pictures, the following aspects are shown: the history of the Prestavèl mine and the fluorite ore dressing plant;the fluorite froth flotation process and construction and growth of the Stava tailings dams;the collapse of the dams, which on 19th July 1985 caused the loss of 268 human lives and very serious environmental and material damage;the causes and responsibilities of the disaster, as established at the criminal trial which ended with the sentence of 10 defendants found guilty of

Formation for technicians and managers

The Stava 1985 Foundation is available to offer its own structure and network of experts to technicians and managers in charge of the safety of geotechnical structures. It organizes educational initiatives and seminars which aim to improve their level of knowledge on this important topic. Post-university specialization initiatives are carried out in collaboration with Universities and Technical Associations. Worthy of note was the workshop on “Safety of earth structures: tailings dams, soil fills and landfills”, which was held in Stava on 16th, 17th and 18th July 2015, thanks to the Order of Engineers of the Province of Trento, the Italian

Visita guidata sul Sentiero della Memoria

The Stava 1985 footpath on Mount Prestavèl

Starting from the Stava 1985 Information Centre in Stava, the Footpath leads to the areas where mining activities were carried out. It can be followed with the help of the “The Discovery Mountain” guidebook in English, Italian and German, which can be purchased at the APT tourist offices of the Fiemme Valley, the Stava 1985 Information Centre and the Stradivari Bar at Stava. The Footpath has been equipped with explanatory panels set along its course. The same texts in English are found in “The Discovery Mountain” guidebook. The Footpath winds through forested areas, allowing the discovery of nature in the

Stava three years after

The book contains the most significant pictures of the meetings between the Pope, the relatives of the victims and the people of Tesero. The book collects the full texts in Italian of the sermons pronounced by the Pontiff and the Archbishop of Trento, who also commemorated the memory of the victims on various occasions. Order the book

Sgorigrad – Stava. Identical disaster

This book, written in English, Italian and Bulgarian, describes the analogies between the catastrophe of Sgorigrad and Vratza, in Bulgaria, and the catastrophe of the Stava Valley, in Italy. On 1st May 1966, the failure of the tailings dam of the Mir-Placalnica zinc and lead mine, uphill of the village of Sgorigrad, gave rise to a 450,000 m3 mud flow which ran for a distance of 7 km as far as the town of Vratza. The incident caused the loss of hundreds of lives, as well as vast material and environmental destruction. On 19th July 1985, the collapse of the

The film

The short fictional documentary entitled “Stava 19th July” tells the story of the Prestavèl fluorite mine from the early 1960s up to the disaster on 19th July 1985. It makes use of highly sophisticated shooting techniques and special effects to reconstruct the various phases of the mining activities, the process of mineral enrichment and the building of the mineral waste facility from the early 1960s up to their catastrophic failure. The film was produced thanks to funds from the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Municipality of Tesero, with the sponsorship of the Italian National Research Council/Group for the Prevention