The Alatsee above also holds its secrets. A layer of red algae at a depth of 15 to 18 meters is a real specialty: underneath it is pitch black and the water is almost oxygen-free, divers report. For safety reasons, you are only allowed to go underwater here with special permission and for research purposes. In very rare cases, the algae are washed up and can be seen from the shore as a reddish shimmer in the water.
Before the Alatsee became the property of the monastery, it is said to have belonged to the widow of a knight. “She is said to have temporarily made the lake available to the abbey for fishing,” says Peresson. When the monastery later stopped releasing the water, she cursed it, according to an old legend. The son is said to have thrown tree poles into Lake Alat out of revenge to make it unusable for fishing with nets.
Of course, the tree posts can no longer be found. In recent decades, divers have discovered interesting objects in the 32 meter deep water: “In addition to ammunition and weapons from the Second World War, there is still a rod in Lake Alat that was used for aerodynamic tests on aircraft fuselages during the Nazi era,” says Peresson.
Contemporary witnesses report that the lake was a closely guarded restricted area for the National Socialists until the end of the war. As soon as this dark chapter was over, according to Peresson, the American occupiers closed the waters in order to take a closer look. What exactly they hoped to find there remains unclear to this day. Another secret that the Faulenbacher Valley will probably no longer finally reveal...