It is a glacial lake of alpine type, one of the few in the Apennines, located at 1,788 m a.s.l. in a high-altitude basin between the rocky walls of Murolungo (2,184 m) and the slopes of Monte Morrone (2,141 m) and the Costone-Uccettu subgroup (2,239–2,004 m) in a grassy area that in summer is covered with ranunculuses and serves as a refuge for the crested newt.[1]
The lake in late spring (in the background Murolungo)
The lake, lacking inflows, 400 m long and 150 m wide, is a typical high-altitude mountain lake of glacial origin, showing seasonal level variations as it is fed solely by atmospheric precipitation and the melting of snow. Its shape suggests an ancient merger of two dolines.[2]
The lake can be reached from the western side of Cartore in Borgorose through medium-length and elevation hiking trails, via the Vallone di Fua or Vallone del Cieco, or from Corvaro by ascending Valle Amara, Valle dell'Asino, up to Campitello, then crossing between Punta dell'Uccettu and Monte Morrone with a subsequent short descent. From the eastern side, it can be accessed from Prato Capito on the road to Campo Felice by crossing the Bosco di Cerasuolo, reaching Campitello, and joining the other route, or from the Rifugio Vincenzo Sebastiani by climbing Vena Stellante (2,271 m) and then descending gradually.[3]
The lake with herds drinking. On the left, Murolungo
The lake gained national notoriety due to a disinformation attempt in April 1978 during the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. A false Red Brigades communiqué (false communiqué no. 7) on 18 April 1978 indicated that Moro's body should be searched for in the lake, forcing the police to conduct challenging search operations under the frozen surface.When the false Red Brigades communiqué about Duchessa Lake arrived,
general rehearsal for Moro's assassination, not only did Berlinguer believe in its authenticity, but the Ministry of the Interior confirmed it. Berlinguer and Chiaromonte then went to Andreotti, Galloni, and Salvi, who thought Moro was already dead.[5]
On the same day, the Red Brigades hideout in via Gradoli, 96 in Rome was discovered.[2][6]
Within a week, the international press raised doubts about its authenticity:
The Canard Enchaîné did not hesitate to assert confidently that the Duchessa Lake affair (i.e., the rumor circulated at a certain point about the presence of Moro's body in that remote location, with the consequent massive police operation) was nothing but a setup by anti-terrorism specialists, who, faced with an untenable stalemate, wanted to induce the terrorists to break their silence and show themselves to public opinion in full action.[7] It was a scheme whose authorship was variously attributed to circles linked to the Prime Minister[8] or the Minister of the Interior at the time.[9]
The false message had indeed been claimed by multiple parties, but the issuance of the new communiqué no. 7 three days later led to suspicions of its apocryphal nature; it was likely produced by the art forger Antonio Chichiarelli, linked to the Banda della Magliana.[10]
↑ Regione Lazio and CTS Ambiente, ed. (2007). Guida ai servizi nelle aree protette della Regione Lazio 2007-2008[Guide to services in the protected areas of the Lazio Region 2007-2008] (in Italian). Parchicard Lazio. p.138.
1 2 "Lago della Duchessa"[Lake della Duchessa]. laghidellazio.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 29 April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
↑ "Percorsi C.A.I. Montagne della Duchessa"[C.A.I. Pathways Duchess Mountains] (in Italian). Riserva Naturale Regionale "Montagne della Duchessa". Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
↑ Barbagallo, Francesco (2001). "Il Pci dal sequestro di Moro alla morte di Berlinguer" [The PCI from Moro's kidnapping to Berlinguer's death]. Studi Storici (in Italian). 42 (4): 841.
↑ Condorelli, Nicole Braun (1979). "L'ITALIA NELLA STAMPA FRANCESE: IL CASO MORO (16 MARZO - 9 MAGGIO 1978)" [Italy in the French Press: The Moro Case (16 March - 9 May 1978)]. Il Politico (in Italian). 44 (2): 238.. Andreotti, in Diari 1976-1979, p. 198, "even stated that DC leaders hoped for a weakening of Moro as a premise for his release and later clarified: 'we hoped that, calculating the polemical impact of the correspondence and assuming Moro was truly so against the DC, they would find it convenient to release him' (Governare, p. 258). This would thus be linked to the peculiar episode of the false BR communiqué regarding the abandonment of Moro's body in Duchessa Lake, which was carried out—through elements of common crime—by the secret services, based on an idea by Judge Vitalone, Andreotti's collaborator. Moro and the BR, however, interpreted the hoax as a macabre rehearsal of his death and a pressure element for such an outcome (Pellegrino, Segreto di Stato, p. 174). Striking is the analogy with the Sossi case, where the hostage had also begun collaborating with the kidnappers, and state apparatuses played the card of a false BR communiqué to hasten, according to Franceschini, the definitive closure of the case": Cotturri, Giuseppe (2004). ""Non interferenza e non indifferenza". Le memorie dell'ambasciatore americano e il "Caso Moro"" ["Non-interference and non-indifference". The memoirs of the American ambassador and the "Moro Case"]. Studi Storici (in Italian). 45 (4): 977., note 46.
↑ Andreotti ... was, for Gotor, the inspirer of the first and most famous disinformation in the Moro case, that of the false Duchessa Lake communiqué, designed to ascertain the hostage's survival and proceed with the Vatican's secret negotiation" (as per Taviani Ermanno, L'autobiografia della nazione: Taviani legge Gotor, Viella, Storica: rivista quadrimestrale: 52, 2012, p. 170, review of Miguel Gotor, Il memoriale della Repubblica. Gli scritti di Aldo Moro dalla prigionia e l'anatomia del potere italiano, Einaudi, Torino 2011).
↑ "In 1979, at the heart of the P2 system, other events unfold (...) the murder of Carmine Pecorelli, the discovery of a satchel containing symbolic references to the Moro kidnapping, a discovery that triggers a series of warnings from Pecorelli's murder to the period following Chichiarelli's murder in 1984 (author of the false BR leaflet announcing Moro's death and indicating Duchessa Lake as the place for the body's recovery)": Cesqui, Elisabetta (1998). "La P2. 1979: Un servizio di informazione nella gestione della transizione" [The P2. 1979: An intelligence service in managing the transition]. Studi Storici (in Italian). 39 (4): 1025..
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