An underwater village reemerges from the depths of the sea: It’s a more common story than you may think. In May of 2021, in a story fit for Hollywood, the remains of a submerged Italian village were revealed for the first time in over seven decades. The village was found at the bottom of Lake Resia, a 2.5-square-mile artificial lake nestled near the borders of Austria and Switzerland.

The lake had been a popular tourist and hiking destination, both in summer and winter months, as seasonal freezing allowed for visitors to venture out onto it. With a dramatic 14th-century steeple emerging from its turquoise waters, the setting had inspired a book and a Netflix series. But no screenwriter could’ve written what happened that week.