The Margalef reservoir is held on the Montsant river by a 34 m-high dam, completed around the mid-1990s. Its emerald waters below the conglomerate cliffs make it a very scenic spot, with a leisure area and an easy, family-friendly riverside walking route linking it to the village of Margalef.
The dam is an arch-gravity structure 96 m long, designed in 1984 and completed in 1995, following a long environmental controversy over the impact on a stretch of river that had until then been well preserved. The reservoir stores close to 3 hm³ of water over an area of nearly 32 ha, and its water is used for irrigation in Cabassers, la Bisbal de Montsant and Margalef, for hydroelectric power generation, and for the drinking-water supply; part of the flow is transferred outside the Montsant basin, to Palma d'Ebre. It is managed by the Catalan Water Agency (Agència Catalana de l'Aigua).
- Best fornature, families, photography, hiking
- OpeningÀrea de lleure i itinerari saludable de vora riu; accés lliure. L'accés amb vehicle pot requerir reserva i taxa.
- AddressRiu de Montsant, aigua amunt de Margalef, 43371 Margalef
Imatge: FarzanehSarafraz · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sources: ca.wikipedia.org · turismepriorat.org
Last updated: August 2026