Luxembourg drinking water than the natural reserves in the late 1940s were no longer sufficient, the Luxembourg government decided to fall back in the early 1950s, on surface water for drinking water.

It required a clean, year-round flowing waters in the vicinity or even larger cities industries were located.

The problem of adequate water reserves could only be solved by a dam, as in Luxembourg there is no large natural lakes. The narrow valley of the Sauer and the rocky shores that give the dam and good firm hold, offer good conditions for the creation of an artificial lake.

 

The construction period for the 47-meter-high arch dam was almost three years, from 1955 to 1957. The wall thickness varies between 1.5 meters and 4.5 meters at the crown at the foot of the wall. The high pressure of water at the outflow of the bottom two Scots is used for energy production. There were installed two turbines to generate electricity at peak hours, they produce up to 15,000 kilowatts.

The reservoir covers at maximum filling an area of ​​3.8 square kilometers and has a capacity of 60 million cubic meters of water. The lake is up to 43 meters deep.

 
In the valley there was a small village whose inhabitants before the construction of the dam had to be resettled. Today, divers can visit at this point about 40 meters in depth, nor the remains.

To keep the lake water as clean as possible, was built beneath and near the village of Pont Misère Bavigne Vorstaumauern with storage heights of 9.6 and 23 meters.

There, driftwood, tree trunks and sand particles are trapped before they can reach the lake.