Proserpina dam

Proserpina dam
Location: Badajoz Province in Extremadura ( Spain ) Tributaries: Arroyo Las Pardillas Drain: Arroyo Las Pardillas → Arroyo de la Albuera → Río Aljucén → Guadiana Major cities nearby: Merida
Extremadura , Spain
Coordinates	38 ° 58 '11 "  N , 6 ° 21' 59"  W Coordinates: 38 ° 58 '11 "  N , 6 ° 21' 59"  W.
Data on the structure
Lock type:	Gravity dam
Construction time:	Early 2nd century
Height of the barrier structure :	12-22 m
Building volume:	478 800  m³
Crown width:	3.75 m
Slope slope on the air side :	1: 0 or 1: 5
Slope slope on the water side :	10: 1
Data on the reservoir
Storage space	6th 000 000  m³

The Proserpina Dam ( Spanish : Presa romana de Proserpina or Embalse de Proserpina ) near Merida , in the province of Badajoz , Extremadura , in southwestern Spain was created by the Romans around the beginning of the 2nd century.

The dam , which is about 5 km outside the city, served as a reservoir for the provincial capital Emerita Augusta , today Mérida, whose water is still fed into the city from there via an aqueduct .

The barrier structure is a combination of a gravity dam and a bulk dam , an air-side support body made of earth. The wall consists of blocks outside (on the water side ) and quarry stones (on the air side) and inside between Roman concrete .

The dam wall with a total length of 427 m has a double kink in the ground plan (by 20 ° and 5 °). According to various information and reference points, it is between 12 and 22 m high; about 6 m below the surface of the earth. The crown width measures 3.75 m. The water side is inclined at 10: 1, the side facing the embankment is vertical. The wall has pillars on the water side at a distance of 16 m, each 0.7 m thick. The concrete volume is 478,800 m³. The air-side embankment is inclined at 1: 5 and reaches up to the wall.

The reservoir can hold 6 million cubic meters of water and is hardly silted up. A water intake shaft and a large flood relief are available.

It is known that the dam was repaired in 1617, 1689, 1791 and 1942. It is still in operation today. Similar dams were built with the nearby Cornalvo dam and the one in Alcantarilla .

See also

• List of Roman dams
• List of dams in the world (Spain)

literature

• Miguel Arenillas, Juan C. Castillo: Dams from the Roman Era in Spain. Analysis of Design Forms (with appendix), in: Santiago Huerta (Ed.): Proceedings of the First International Congress on Construction History: Madrid, 20th – 24th January 2003 . Instituto Juan de Herrera, Madrid 2003, ISBN 84-9728-070-9 .
• Klaus Grewe : The dams of the Roman Mérida (Spain). In: The same: Masterpieces of ancient technology. Von Zabern, Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-8053-4239-1 , pp. 19-24.
• Heinz-Otto Lamprecht: Opus Caementitium . Beton-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3764003103 .
• Niklaus Schnitter: Römische Talsperren, in: Antike Welt , Vol. 8, No. 2 (1978), pp. 25–32 (29).

Web links

Commons : Proserpina Dam  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Proserpina dam. In: Structurae
• Romans Empire - 2nd Century AD
• with cross-sectional drawing
• Roman Proserpina Dam - drawings, photo
• Encyclopaedia Britannica