The River Ránsares
The Riánsares river (from Ánsares river) or Riansares is a river in central Spain The Bedija river joins the Riánsares near the municipality of Horcajo de Santiago (Cuenca Province).
The Riansares river is the main tributary of the Gigüela river, one of the sources of the Guadiana river that runs through Castilla-La Mancha. Our river has a length of 94 km and drains a 1,394.7 km² basin.
The Riánsares was born in Vellisca (southern foothills of the Sierra de Altomira), province of Cuenca; and flows into the Taray Lagoon on the Gigaela River, southeast of the province of Toledo.
The Cigüela river in this area, due to the flatness of the land that it crosses, suffered overflows. The catastrophic floods that occurred are a consequence of the Cigüela river being supplied by the waters of the Riánsares river through the Taray lagoon and forming a wide flood plain.
The hydrographic basin of the
Riánsares and Cigüela rivers. El Taray lagoon and set of artificial wetlands in
the middle section of the river.
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| Source of the Riánsares River |
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| Crossing the Riánsares River with the Bedijo |
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| Crossing the Riánsares River with the Giguela |
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| Passing the Riánsares River through our town of Corral de Almaguer |
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| Complete tour of the Riansares River |
RIANSARES RIVER HISTORY
Curiosities of Our Rio:
You knew that...
¿Isn't the current riverbed of
the Riánsares River your way through Corral de Almaguer the original?
From its beginnings as a river course approximately two million years ago (it was quaternary), the waters of the Rariosares were excavating between the hill on which the current population "Cerro del Corral" sits and the plateau on which rises the arrabal of San Sebastian, a deep vega (floodplain, or flood valley) - called vega del Hondón - in which the river was rearwatered and branched into numerous small streams or canals , framed by lush vegetation and a towering grove that gave the environment a wet and swampy appearance.
Just at the end of that marshy area, the various branches of the river were reunited in a natural depression of the land, where they formed a lagoon - called the vega or serna (stretched from the back of the virgen de la Muela public school, to the current bridge through which the national road 301 crosses the Riánsares) - bounded on its perimeter by thick carrizos and reed beds in which the ansars (common goose) of all kinds that gave our river course its characteristic name of river-asars or river of ducks used to stop.
The Riánsares River Overflows And Its Consequences
The Riánsares river
has also overflowed. As it passes through the Riansares area at the height of
the Roman Bridge, the waters come out to the path of the esplanade.
One of the most significant and with the most repercussions was the overflow of the nineteenth century, our river overflowed enormously as we can see in the images that have survived to this day of that time.
Without trees or
vegetation to hold back the waters, the rains began to fall in a torrential
way, taking away everything in their path.
Because of this, violent storms with floods occurred during the years 1847,1860,1864,1888 and especially in 1891.
Corral de Almaguer
has not suffered only one overflow of the Riánsares river throughout its
history, without going too far back in time, we can find the most recent
overflow in 2013.
Going back in time we find overflows in 1947, later in 1955, which caused a great subsequent famine (in 1956) with a series of consequences collected in the days after the catastrophe; 78 houses sunk by the waters; Another 68 demolished by Toledo engineers due to the danger of imminent collapse, 150 homes with serious damage, among which was the Clausura convent; More than 50 drowned caballerias and more than 100 pigs, along with very numerous herds of sheep, rabbits and poultry;
Nous avons continued in the
seasons and in 1979 + a complete inondation is produced in the lands of Corral
de Almaguer which has been periodically free for the inondations of Riansares.
Des inondations who generally behave in excess of danger, car nos ancêtres,
avec un bon jugement, savaient installer la municipalité sur une haute colline
et l'entourer de murs qui servaient, non seulement à la défense, but also
retains theinondation .
Starting from the
sixteenth century, the family croissant installation conduit to the emergence
of a banlieue in a protected zone of the eaux, well qu'encore suffisamment
élevée pour rester à l'écart des inondations.
Descennies later and in raison of grave inondations dont nous parlerons ci-dessous, of new channels of drainage onté construits pour attenuer the immenses lagoons that are formed in certain zones of the ville.
It is located in the drains of
the Plaza del Agua and Calle Ramalazo, destined to evacuate the backwaters of
the Puerta del Agua (Plaza del Agua Actuelle) and the banlieue (Plaza del Pilar
Actuelle).
Other curiosities:
The name of the river is used as a woman's name in Tarancón (Cuenca) and its region; its shorthand is "Rian". It is also the name of the Virgen de Riánsares, patron saint of Tarancón. In addition, there is a stream called Riánsares in the end of Orgaz and that spills its waters to the Algodor river.
Photographic Compilation; Floods In Corral De Almaguer
XIX
1947
1956
1979
2013
RIANSARES RIVER PHOTOS
Text written by Cristina Serrano Martínez The History of Our River