About Vermunt Dam

The Vermunt Reservoir in the Montafon valley of Vorarlberg holds the distinction of being one of Austria's oldest hydroelectric storage dams, completed in 1930 when high-alpine dam engineering was still in its early decades. The 38-metre arch dam stores 12 million cubic metres on the Ill River at 1,743 metres above sea level. As part of the Illwerke vkw system, Vermunt collects water from the upper Ill catchment and feeds the Partenen powerhouse below. The reservoir was expanded and reinforced several times over the decades as the Montafon power system grew around it. Despite its modest capacity compared to neighbouring reservoirs like Kopssee and Silvretta, Vermunt plays a critical role in daily flow regulation. The Bielerhöhe pass, where the famous Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse begins, lies just above the Vermunt basin and is a popular summer destination for cyclists and motorists. The reservoir's nearly century-old dam is a testament to early twentieth-century alpine civil engineering, built at a time when workers had to ascend on foot with hand tools.