The Santa Fe Reservoir () is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

on the Riera de Gualba, a tributary of the Tordera River. It is located within the Fogars de Montclús municipal term,

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The area is a popular destination for excursions and picnics and is easily accessible on foot from the nearest road.Pantano de Santa Fe de Montseny - Minube.com
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History

At the beginning of the 20th century Ramón de Montaner, a publisher from

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

who had the project of building a luxury hotel in the area, bought the Santa Fe valley in the Montseny Range from the Alfaras family of

Sant Celoni Sant Celoni () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Comarques of Catalonia, ''comarca'' of the Vallès Oriental in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the valley of the Tordera river between the ranges of Montseny and Montnegre. The m ...

. Work on the hotel began in 1912 and a little dam was built in order to ensure electricity supply for it. Since the small dam —now known as ''l'Estanyol''— soon revealed itself insufficient, construction work of a second dam began in 1920. Initially the architect was going to be

Lluís Domènech i Montaner Lluís Domènech i Montaner (; 21 December 1850 – 27 December 1923) was a Catalan architect who was very much involved in and influential for the Catalan '' Modernisme català'', the Art Nouveau/ Jugendstil movement. He was also a Catalan pol ...

, Ramón de Montaner's nephew, but in the end the dam was designed by Pere Domènech i Roura.La transformació de Santa Fe del Montseny (IV): l’hotel, l’Estanyol i l’embassament
/ref> The Santa Fe dam was built of local

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and ended up being completed in 1935, at the time of the Spanish Republic, shortly before the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. The dam created a reservoir with a storage capacity of 899,000 m³ and also provided electricity for the nearby town of Gualba.

References

External links

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El caso del avión abandonado en el Montseny
Reservoirs in Catalonia Vallès Oriental Arch–gravity dams {{Catalonia-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links