POLCENIGO. Last summer, one of the least rainy in history, had become the destination of many visitors who intended to admire the Christ resurfaced due to the water that had receded. The previous summers it was a destination for those seeking relief from the heat of the plain. But at Christmas the Gorgazzo spring has been for 44 years – barring interruptions due to Covid – a point of reference for those who participate in the midnight mass and the evocative immersion of the divers.
On Christmas night the tradition restarted, suspended for a couple of years due to Covid. The initiative is promoted by the Pordenone Divers Center and the Municipality of Polcenigo. First the torchlight procession, then the Mass celebrated by Father Rino Perin, bishop in Central Africa, in the diocese of M’baïki, and Don Arturo Rizza, then the immersion of the divers to place the votive crown in the hands of Christ, under the floating nativity scene.
And there were so many who didn’t want to miss the appointment in the spring that finally returned to its natural level at the beginning of November.
Before, no one had the memory of a Gorgazzo so dry with the resurfacing of the sculpture of the Christ of the Abyss, anchored at a depth of a dozen meters.
Although there are no certainties, it is believed that the Gorgazzo’s power supply depends on the mountain above, the Cavallo massif, which has always been poor in springs. The situation in nearby Livenza is different. Both at Palù and in Santissima the water has always remained at a good level. However, the Livenza is fed by the overhanging Cansiglio forest and by resurgences, factors that guarantee good nutrition even in periods of drought.
The fame of the bottomless abyss of the Gorgazzo, fatal to some divers, has attracted great sportsmen and speleo-submarine explorers. In 2008 Luigi Casati, a diving champion from Lecco, explored the Gorgazzo up to a depth of 212 metres, then identifying new tunnels and cavities. The record for diving into the abyss on 4 September 2019 is held by the world-renowned Polish speleo-underwater explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, 51, who dived into the Gorgazzo, reaching a depth of 222 meters.