Santillana reservoir, also known as Manzanares el Real reservoir ( es, embalse de Santillana or ''embalse de Manzanares el Real''), is a body of water along the

Manzanares river The Manzanares () is a river in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, which flows from the Sierra de Guadarrama, passes through Madrid, and eventually empties into the Jarama river, which in turn is a right-bank tributary to the Tagus. In its ...

located in the municipalities of

Manzanares el Real Manzanares el Real is a 8,936 inhabitant town (2020 statistics fro in the northern area of the autonomous Community of Madrid. It is located at the foot of The Pedriza, a part of the Sierra de Guadarrama, and next to the ''embalse de Santillana' ...

and

Soto del Real Soto del Real, whose former name was ''Chozas de la Sierra'', is a town and municipality in the northern area of the autonomous Community of Madrid which had 8,294 inhabitants in 2009. 43 kilometers away from Madrid, the capital city, it is loca ...

, in the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest munici ...

, in the centre of Spain. It has a maximum surface of 1052 ha, the longest distance between opposites shores reaches , and the total volume of the reservoir is 91 hm³. The first dam was built in 1907, but in 1969 a new and higher dam was built. This new construction was 5 m higher, which allowed the reservoir to have a volume twice as large as before. The second and present dam, built in a period of 12 months, began its service in 1971. Its foundations are located at an altitude of and the highest point of the dam is at , with a total length of . Belonging to the

Canal de Isabel II Canal de Isabel II (CYII) is the only company that manages the water supplies for Madrid, Spain. It is owned by the Autonomous Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communiti ...

public company, it regulates the flow of the Manzanares river and an important part of the water supply to the city of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and its surroundings. Smaller rivers Samburiel and

Arroyo del Mediano Arroyo often refers to: * Arroyo (creek), an intermittently dry creek Arroyo may also refer to: People * Arroyo (surname) Places United States ;California * Arroyo Burro Beach, a public beach park in Santa Barbara County, California * Arro ...

also flow into the reservoir, which is part of the natural protected area called

Parque Regional de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares Parque is the Galician, Portuguese and Spanish word for "park", and may refer to: * Parque (TransMilenio), a metro station in Bogotá, Colombia * Parque (Lisbon Metro), in Portugal * Parque (Santurce), a subbarrio in San Juan, Puerto Rico * Jim ...

. It is also part of the

Site of Community Importance A Site of Community Importance (SCI) is defined in the European Commission Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) as a site which, in the biogeographical region or regions to which it belongs, contributes significantly to the maintenance or restoration at ...

(SCI) ''Manzanares basin'', with code ES3110004.

Gallery

File:Presa embalse santillana.JPG, New dam and old dam partially flooded. File:Embalse santillana illescas.JPG, View of the dam of the Santillana reservoir. File:Embalse de Santillana y La Pedriza - 01.jpg, Santillana reservoir, with

La Pedriza La Pedriza is a geological feature on the southern slopes of the Guadarrama mountain range of great scenic and leisure interest. Access is from Manzanares el Real, a municipality in the northwest of the Community of Madrid (Spain). Geological for ...

mountains in the background.

References

* * *

External links

State of the Embalse de SantillanaVirtual flight over the reservoir and its shire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santillana Reservoirs in the Community of Madrid Dams on the Tagus