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Fiumara della Ruffa

The Fiumara della Ruffa is one of the major watercourses in the Municipality of Ricadi and certainly the first for the importance it has had in the history, economy and perhaps also in the civilization of the inhabitants of the places it crosses.

This fiumara can be reached, as well as through ancient paths, by walk, and uneven mule track which, starting from the back of the church from the hamlet of Brivadi, leads directly, among ancient trees, shrubs and colorful and fragrant flowers, to the bed of said “fiumara” where once the bridge of the Roman era crossed the river and united the two banks.

Along the course of the fiumara, there is an ancient hydroelectric plant built between the years 1929/1930 by the lawyer Bernardo Toraldo of Tropea, with the aim of supplying electricity to the municipalities of Spilinga, Drapia and Ricadi.

A daring masonry aqueduct, which ran along the ridge of the valley, diverted the water of the fiumara upstream and carried it up to a height of about 60 meters in a large collection tank from which, falling, it powered a turbine that produced energy electric.

The works for the construction and the supply of materials were long and tiring, so much so that the elderly still tell of the cumbersome systems used to bring the heavy machinery and equipment necessary for the construction downstream. They tell, in fact, that in the plains they dragged them with oxen and on the slopes they made them slide on heavy wooden planks.

Once the work on the power plant was completed, on 23 February 1933 the lawyer Toraldo proposed to the Municipality of Ricadi the establishment of public lighting in the capital and in the hamlets, through the energy produced by the Vatican power plant.

On 19 June 1933 with resolution number 31, the podestà Gregorio Schiariti instituted the consumption tax on electricity for lighting and subsequently, with subsequent resolution number 32, approved the Regulation for its application.

Finally, on 15 October 1933, the Prefectural Commissioner Michele Pugliese, assisted by the Municipal Secretary Carlo Latil , with resolution number 92, approved on 25/XI/33, requested and obtained from the Prefect the authorization to stipulate the contract relating to the supply of electricity for the lighting of the capital and the hamlets with the Toraldo di Tropea electric company.

With this agreement, the Toraldo company undertook to build the primary and secondary network according to the best technical standards within one month of the final approval of the contract.

The lighting had to be ensured by 100 lamps of 20 Watts of 50 of 30 Watts, of 50 of 50 Watts for a total of 200 lamps for a total of 600 Watts and for an average duration of 10 hours a day.

The annual rent amounted to 12,800 lire and the validity of the contract was fixed for five years starting from 1 January 1934, renewable, by tacit agreement, for five years in five years.

In addition to the other usual rules, such as exclusivity, sharing of costs, system maintenance, penalties in the event of service interruption, the solution of any disputes, etc.; in the contact it was also established that the transfer of electricity to private individuals, for residential use, would be granted at the price of two lire per KW/h.

These rules, which initially seemed of secondary importance, subsequently acquired enormous value due to the disputes that arose between the Administration and the Company.

At this point everything seemed ready to start public lighting.

Pasquale Petracca Scaglione wrote in his diary in December 1933: “The Segregato Latil … came to spend a few minutes with us and wanted to see the paintings in the living room, which he admired so much. I took the opportunity to ask him about the light in Ricadi. It will be, he said, Christmas first; and marveling that the work hasn’t started yet. Secretary, I replied, if that dream of light comes true, Ricadi and the hamlet will owe it to you, to you personally, regardless of any… mayor or any “caring” to improve the conditions of a poor municipality. I know what I’m saying, Secretary…He looked at me intelligently and smiled that smile of his which immediately highlights the Lord accustomed to command that excludes gossip…”

In January 1934, Petracca wrote again in his diary: “Finally today, it seems that that dream really does come true. The municipal guard with other employees went arranging the signals, here in the square, where the lamps should be placed. In the square there would be five (very few) with a strength of 50 candles / a total of 250 candles); in the others I don’t know. Mha ! Even if it is not a great light, it would still be electric light”.

Subsequently, towards the end of February, Petracca noted again in his diary that the light had not arrived and bitterly added: “and who knows how long it won’t come!”.

Until June 1934, Petracca, demoralized, no longer mentions electric light, so we believe that it was inaugurated not before the end of that period, if not even in 1935.

Of course, we only know that in the hamlet of Panaia di Spilinga it was inaugurated in April 1931 and that the first electrical system in the Church of San Nicolò was made on 01/31/1936 by a certain Salvatore Epifanio from Tropea.

But once the power plant of the Ruffa River came into operation, the water war began. By now they were contending for it: the millers for the functioning of the mills; the peasants for the irrigation of the fields, as the aqueduct, having passed the collection tank, continued towards Torre Marino and Campo di Tropea; of the marine of the Cape, since the farmers also built on the opposite side a clay aqueduct which carried the water for the irrigation of their fields, up to the extreme point of the Cape; the electricity company for the production of energy, sold to the Municipalities. The quarrels were long and often violent enough to lead sometimes to real acts of sabotage, now at the plant, now at the aqueducts.

This plant was a cross and a delight for the citizens as the energy produced was not sufficient, the voltage dropped and the light bulbs often became fireflies and in the houses one could neither see nor make use of electrical appliances, radios and lastly televisions and refrigerators. Not to mention the net which was often supported not by poles but by wires for which the energy was lacking at every blow of breeze or small glimpse of rain. Citizens complained and often cursed the electric light, its owner and the Municipal Administration incapable of forcing the Company to supply adequate and sufficient energy to satisfy the increased demands of a civil and decent life.

Subjection to this painful and enormously uncomfortable situation lasted until the end of the 1960s when the Toraldo Electric Company was taken over by the National Electricity Agency (ENEL), which began to supply regular 160 Volt energy.

Thus ended, after almost thirty years, a dark period for the citizens of Ricadi who were often forced to pay for electricity that was not supplied or, at least, was supplied in fits and starts and not always at the voltage necessary to power the lighting and the household appliances that were increasingly spreading in families.