"RIAÑO, OLD AND NEW" Riaño by AsturArcadia

Not many people ever get an opportunity to contemplate the backside of a dam. In the mid-1980s the unfortunate inhabitants of Riaño. in the upper Esla valley, did. Completion of that great concrete wall meant that the Sword of Damocles would fall upon their small town . . .

And it did. In spite of the protests.

For some months, the main road from Cistierna to Riaño was diverted to run through a spiral tunnel in the base of the dam. It now runs along the top of the structure.

This was the main street of the doomed little town in October 1985.

Some dwellings were already being abandoned in autumn 1985. Round the back of the town, at a much higher level, ran the new road.

This sad tale continues in the Travelogue . . .