Besòs
The
Besòs is a
river flowing through
Catalonia,
Spain. It is called Besòs when its
tributaries Mogent and
Congost join. It ends in the
Mediterranean sea. Its full drain area passes through the following
cities:
Aiguafreda,
La Garriga,
Les Franqueses,
Canovelles,
Granollers,
Montmeló,
Mollet del Vallès,
Montcada i Reixac,
Santa Coloma de Gramenet,
Barcelona and
Sant Adrià de Besòs. The Besos discharge has a typical Mediterranean profile, it is very irregular during the year.
The Besòs river has five main tributaries:
*
Mogent river*
Congost river*
Tenes river*
Riera de Caldes stream*
Ripoll riverImpossible to navigate, it was nonetheless a link between the Catalan coast and the interior. Its waters were used to irrigate the Barcelona plain. For this purpose, around the tenth century, the
Rec Comtal was built.
As it passes through a highly industrialized area (Barcelona metropolian region), it had the dubious honor of being the most contaminated river in
Europe during the
1970s and
1980s. Since the mid-1990s, it has been thoroughly cleaned. The
Fòrum Universal de les Cultures, which took place in Barcelona during
2004, allowed the creation of a recreation area called
Parc Fluvial del Besòs between the cities of Barcelona, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adrià del Besòs.
