Cavaglia
{{Short description|Hamlet in Graubünden, Switzerland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=April 2025}}
{{About|the hamlet in Val Poschiavo|the comune in the province of Biella, Italy|Cavaglià}}
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Cavaglia is a small hamlet on the western flank of Val Poschiavo in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. Perched at {{convert|1,703|m|ft|abbr=on}} on the hanging Plan da l'Alp terrace, it lies roughly {{convert|4.7|km}} north-west of Poschiavo village but {{convert|700|m}} higher, making the road distance {{convert|11|km}} and the Bernina Line rail journey about 25 minutes. The locality is known for its UNESCO-listed railway station, the nearby Glacier Garden, and a cavern hydropower plant that forms part of the Val Poschiavo cascade.
Geography and climate
Cavaglia occupies a broad glacio-fluvial bench shaped by the retreating Palü Glacier. The cavity-filled Cavagliasch stream drains the shelf, dropping through a gorge before joining the Poschiavino at Puntalta. A MeteoSwiss station records a mean annual temperature of 2 °C and about 1,230 mm of precipitation, roughly half of which falls as snow between October and April.
Transport
Cavaglia railway station is a halt on the Bernina railway, part of the Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscapes world-heritage corridor. To the south the line hugs the shore of Lago di Poschiavo; to the north it climbs street-running through Le Prese and Spinadascio before the gradient steepens toward Alp Grüm.
Glacier Garden
South-west of the hamlet, melt-water vortices from the last glaciation carved more than 30 "giant's kettles" up to 15 m deep in the greywacke bedrock. Protected since 1996 as the Giardino dei Ghiacciai di Cavaglia, the geosite features walkways and trilingual panels and draws about 35,000 visitors a year on tours coordinated with train schedules. A marked nature trail circles the hamlet and links the Glacier Garden to panoramic viewpoints over Val Poschiavo.[http://www.rhb-unesco.ch/Nature-trail.134.0.html?&L=4 "Environmental-protection nature trail"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707002400/http://www.rhb-unesco.ch/Nature-trail.134.0.html?&L=4 |date=7 July 2011 }}, RhB World Heritage Site. Retrieved 27 January 2009.
Hydropower
The 7 MW {{ill|Cavaglia power station|lt=Cavaglia hydro-electric power station|de|Kraftwerk Cavaglia}} (1927) stands in a cavern beneath the terrace, reached by an 800 m pressurised tunnel and service funicular from {{ill|Palü power station|de|Kraftwerk Palü}} at Palü Lake. Water leaves the plant via the Cavagliasch, then enters a pipeline to {{ill|Robbia power station|de|Kraftwerk Robbia}} at San Carlo.{{cite web |url=https://www.repower.com/gruppe/%C3%BCber-uns/unsere-anlagen/wasserkraftwerke/ |title=Wasserkraftwerke |language=de |publisher=Repower |access-date=26 October 2020}}{{cite web |url=http://www.funimag.com/suisse/Cavaglia01.htm |title=Die Puschlaver Geisterbahn |work=Funimag |access-date=26 October 2020}}
A short surface spur once linked the cavern to Cavaglia station for heavy equipment deliveries; its trace is still visible in the Bernina-line heritage dossier.
References
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