Almansa Reservoir

The Almansa Reservoir is one of the most representative places in our city, due to its environmental and heritage wealth. The exploitation and use of water, as a source of wealth, along with other natural resources that are generated in its environment, has led to the settlement of human communities since Prehistory.

Recently, after years of work cleaning and dredging the reservoir, the area has been revitalized through the Agua Viva project, preparing roads, installing signage and furniture, and opening an Information Office.

The routes that run through the entire area allow you to get closer to the flora and fauna characteristic of this lake environment, the reservoir dam itself, or one of the oldest archaeological sites in the town, the Cerro del Pantano.

The Dam

The Almansa Reservoir is a basin where streams, springs and ravines from the surrounding area converge, along with the watercourse of the Alpera springs, with an average flow of approximately 100 liters per second. Such water wealth deserved better use, but it also posed a danger to the population when the waters rose due to heavy rains.

Since the beginning of the 16th century, the Almansa city council took on the construction of a dam to contain the waters. A first masonry wall was built between 1530 and 1538, but it was insufficient. Therefore, a new project for a more solid dam was carried out between 1584 and 1586. This new work is an arch wall, which contains the waters on its convex side, composed of two bodies, the lower one, which is where the vault opens. of the irrigation intake or Botana, and the upper one, a stand that reduces the thickness of the construction as it gains height. On its façade there is a carved crown that reads: SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA – 1584 (To God alone be honor and glory). This work of hydraulic engineering was a pioneer in Europe, and is currently one of the oldest in use in Spain.

However, although more robust and resistant, it was still insufficient to contain the volume of water that the swamp could offer. Therefore, at the end of the 18th century it was increased, in this case, with a polygonal wall that raised its height considerably. Later, between 1915 and 1938, a sludge cleaning was carried out, and the new Botana was built from a cylindrical tower, and a large spillway to the east of it.