Running water was brought to San Leonardo Valcellina in 1837 thanks to the intuition of a local farmer, Giovanni Antonio Dell’Angelo, known as Pellegrin. Before that there was the “lagoon”, a stagnant and unhealthy pool, fed by the rains, in the centre of the square.
Pellegrin, studying the slope of the Cellina, found an ingenious way to dig a “roiello” that could overcome the obstacle of the high scarp of the torrent, twenty metres high. He did this on his own, digging for twenty-seven months, until he succeeded in this incredible undertaking. The roiello worked until the beginning of the twentieth century, when the discharge of the hydroelectric power stations of Malnisio and then Giais passed through San Leonardo. The canal also reaches the Partidor power station, right in San Leonardo.
Pellegrin’s ingenious work is remembered in a memorial stone along the Cellina.