Antique Sawmill Taialacqua

Don Taialacqua e la sua grande idea

"Don" Taialacqua's (“Father” Water cutter's) good idea

It was thanks to the parish priest Don Taialacqua that the villagers built the old Taialacqua Sawmill along the Via Lungolago of Molveno in 1500.

He wanted to improve the economic conditions of the population by producing semi-finished wooden products to then sell in the upper area of Lake Garda. His surname was auspicious, not only because the sawmill bore his name but also because it was water-operated. The water comes from "Rio Molini" which moves a wheel embedded in a 10 cm beech axis, which in turn moves a piston rod transforming the rotary movement of the blade into a vertical one to saw the logs.

This is where the so-called 6 to 10 mm thick wooden "Molvene" boards were produced.

After the Taialacqua sawmill, 300 more sawmills were built in the Trentino region, but this one is one of the few that has survived and which is in excellent condition. The high number of sawmills in the valley and in the "Ischia" plain towards the heart of the Brenta Dolomites led the valley to be called "Val delle Seghe" (the Valley of Saws).

Not to be missed

The inside of the sawmill. There is a Visitor's Information Centre outside the sawmill explaining how it worked. Visitors can go inside in summer from the middle of June to the middle of September, and in winter only on request, so make sure you book before turning up.