Ermita de la Virgen del Pilar Dam

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The dam of Ermita de la Virgen del Pilar was a Roman dam on the boundary of the Spanish municipality of Monforte de Moyuela, Teruel, in Aragon. The few residues can get to a fairly detailed reconstruction of the built as gravity dam in the 1st century Absperrbauwerks.

Accordingly, the dam was built in two phases. First, we constructed in the steep valley of the Rio Santa Maria, a tributary of the Río Moyuela, an approximately 52 meter long and 14 meter high dam. The 6.90 meter high construction consisted firstly of a 4.30 meter wide valley side scarf wall that was covered with dressed stone and filled with rubble in mortar. On the other hand, there was the water side a 2.60 -meter-wide formwork opus quadratum, which was about 1 meter thick filled along the inner shell in full height by opus caementitium, while the rest of the backfill to opus quadratum back with mortar was mixed small-scale material. The approximately 5.90 -meter-wide mural crown this first phase had a clean floor laid stones.

About 50 years after the construction of this first construction, the dam was increased by about 2.60 to 16.60 meters. For this purpose, an approximately 5.40 meters wide, double-leaf wall was set in opus incertum to the original mural crown, which was filled with mortar and rubble. The length of the dam increased by this measure to about 86 meters. The capacity of the reservoir was increased from approximately 250 000 cubic meters to 450 000 cubic meters.

With a base width of 6.90 meters and a height of 16.60 meters, the construction was very unstable, one is for gravity dam in a ratio of 2:3 as a sufficient advance in order to withstand the water, but most of all the sediment pressure. The dam of Ermita de la Virgen del Pilar seems to have been only about 50 more years before he probably collapsed under the pressure of the alluvial sediments.

Entirely unclear is the function of the dam as there is no Roman settlement or city was near him, to whose care he could have helped. Also villas or estates corresponding time position are not known from the area, so that even a use for irrigation regulation can not be open.