
Ricobayo is a locality in the
province of Zamora
Zamora () is a province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Ourense, León, Valladolid, and Salamanca, and by Portugal.
The present-day province of Zamo ...
, Spain. Formerly a municipality in its own right, it is part of
Muelas del Pan
Muelas del Pan is a municipality located in the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain.
According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 844 inhabitants.
See also
*Tierra del Pan
Tierra del Pan (Land of Bread) ...
.
Bridge
Long important as a crossing-point on the
River Esla
The Esla is a river in the provinces of León and Zamora in the northwest of Spain. It is a tributary of the Duero River that starts in the Cantabrian Mountains and is long. Its direction of flow is from north to south. It is the largest tributa ...
, Ricobayo's original bridge is now under water, having been drowned by the construction of the Ricobayo reservoir. Since the 1990s the main bridge has been the
Ricobayo Arch Bridge
The Ricobayo Arch Bridge (Spanish: ''Puente de San Esteban'' or ''Arco de Ricobayo'') is a supported deck arch bridge that carries the National 122 Road over the Esla River at Ricobayo in the province of Zamora, Spain.
The original bridge at ...
.
Dam and reservoir
In the 1920s it was agreed to build a
gravity dam on the
River Esla
The Esla is a river in the provinces of León and Zamora in the northwest of Spain. It is a tributary of the Duero River that starts in the Cantabrian Mountains and is long. Its direction of flow is from north to south. It is the largest tributa ...
at Ricobayo. It impounds the Ricobayo Reservoir.
The dam is part of a hydroelectric scheme known as Saltos del Duero. This scheme involves other dams in the catchment area of the
Duero
The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west part o ...
such as the
Almendra Dam.
As well as electricity generation, Ricobayo Reservoir is used for recreation.
In the summer of 2021 the two uses came into conflict, when the reservoir was largely drained by the electric utility company
Iberdrola
Iberdrola () is a Spanish multinational electric utility company based in Bilbao, Spain. Iberdrola has a workforce of around 34,000 employees serving around 31.67 million customers. Subsidiaries include Scottish Power (United Kingdom) ...
, making Ricobayo less attractive to tourists.
References
Populated places in the Province of Zamora
{{Zamora-geo-stub