Riaño, 1987. General interest, dispossession & displacement. Alberto Sanchez-Sanchez | a.sanchezsanchez@columbia.edu Columbia University | GSAPP | Spring 2015 | A4780: Architecture, Human Rights, Spatial Politics | Professor: Felicity D. Scott

Abstract.

In 1987, the historic town of Riaño in the north of Spain was to be permanently inundated upon the

completion of a dam in the valley below. Facing stiff resistance, the social democratic government of Felipe

González dynamited the town in order to force the villagers out of their homes. Conceived in the early 20th

century during the reign of Alfonso XIII of Spain (1902-1931), the dam was designed during the Second

Spanish Republic (1931-1936) and built under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975). It was finally

put into service after the Spanish transition to democracy in 1975. Significantly, the project encountered local

opposition during the four regimes, but the ‘general interest’ argument prevailed throughout. In fact, it was

a legitimate, democratic government that ultimately carried out the destruction of the historic town.

The demolition of Riaño is a story of dispossession and forced displacement, but also one of

resistance and fight. By analyzing the last years of the town, with a focus on the media response to its

demolition, this paper illustrates how strongly the inhabitants of a place, the physical space that they occupy,

and the power structures which control that space are intertwined. ‘Riaño, 1987’ is a paper about human

rights, architecture, and spatial politics.

Riaño, 1987. General interest, dispossession & displacement. Alberto Sanchez-Sanchez | a.sanchezsanchez@columbia.edu Columbia University | GSAPP | Spring 2015 | A4780: Architecture, Human Rights, Spatial Politics | Professor: Felicity D. Scott

n July 18, 1987 the tower of the church of Riaño, a historic town in the North of Spain, was

dynamited by the Spanish Government (Figure 01). The demolition of the 18th century campanile

staged not only the end of Riaño itself, but also the end of the entire region of which Riaño was the capital

town, the Montaña Leonesa. During the eighteen days that the demolition works lasted, the usually nicknamed

“Spanish Switzerland” (because of the richness of its landscape and its characteristic vernacular architecture)

was completely razed. The historic town of Riaño, as well as the villages of Anciles, Éscaro, Huelde, La

Puerta, Pedrosa del Rey and Salio were demolished. 3,100 people were forced to move and a total of 926

buildings were lost, including the churches of Riaño (18th century), Huelde (16th century), Salio (16th

century) and Éscaro (18th century), the palace of Álvarez de Pedrosa (17th century), the manor house of

Valbuena (15th century), the bridge of Bachende (15th century), the Roman bridge of Pedrosa del Rey, an

unknown number of vernacular buildings and twenty-two archaeological sites.

The demolition of the villages was carried out by employees of the Ministry of Public Works

(Ministerio de Obras Públicas) and the Hydrographic Confederation of the Duero River (Confederación Hidrográfica

del Duero) in order to force the inhabitants of the villages to leave their houses, which were going to be

flooded once the sluice gates of a dam built in the valley below were closed. Due to the residents’ refusal to

leave, the Government decided to take an unprecedented action in Spain, demolish the villages that were

O

Figure 01: Demolition of the tower of Riaño’s church, Riaño (León, Spain), July 18, 1987. Video: Florencio Aparicio for Televisión Española.

going to be flooded. Even during Franco’s dictatorship (1939-1975), when more than one hundred villages

were lost due to the construction of large dams (those higher than 50 feet), not a single village was

demolished. People were expropriated and forced to move, but the villages were simply flooded, never torn

down. Lacking the authoritarian mechanisms that the dictatorship had (Spanish transition to democracy had

taken place in 1975), the Government decided to raze the villages, arguing that once the buildings were gone,

people would have to move. Although people eventually left, the demolition works were heavily resisted,

leading the Government to send more than 300 anti-riot policemen to assure that they could be carried out.

The confrontation between the anti-riot police and the villagers, with old men brandishing staves

and youth forming barricades (Figure 02), caused a tremendously negative impact in Spanish public opinion.

This was exacerbated when it was known that one villagers had committed suicide the day before his house

was demolished, and that three people were injured by rubber balls (including painter Carmen Sopeña, who

lost vision in one eye). In its editorial of July 12, 1987 newspaper El País stated: “The use of smoke grenades,

the police charges, and the reiterated arrest of the mayor (…) are not the most appropriate means to calm

people when they are being expelled of their houses (…). The situations in which the residents have been

literally uprooted of their houses could and should have been avoided, as they completely discredit the

scientific and political reasons that led to the construction of the dam. In the way in which a government

behaves with its citizens, not only from a legal point of view but also regarding their Human Rights, is where

the difference between an authoritarian regime and a democracy resides.” (1)

1 “Morir en Riaño,” El País (Editorial), July 12, 1987.

Figure 02: Images of burning barricades in Riaño during its demolition. The last image (right) shows Vicente Alonso being stopped by his sister while

trying to attack the anti-riot policemen. The image was published in national and international newspapers, becoming a symbol of the fight for Riaño.

Photos (from left to right): Valentín Costo / Arsenio Díaz / Arsenio Díaz / Mauricio Peña.

The construction of the dam at Riaño (1902-1983).

The dam that led to the demolition and flooding of Riaño, Anciles, Éscaro, Huelde, La Puerta,

Pedrosa del Rey, and Salio (and also to the partial demolition and flooding of Burón and Vegacerneja) was

proposed, as most of the great dams in Spain, in the early 20th century. For the Regenerationism movement

(Regeneracionismo), an intellectual current that tried to analyze the causes of the decline of Spain as a nation,

the control of water resources was essential in order to promote economic development in rural areas

through the transformation of dry land into irrigated land. The dam of Riaño (also called “Dam of Remolina,”

Presa de Remolina in Spanish) was proposed in 1902 as part of an infrastructure network designed at the peak

of Regenerationism. The dam was defended as a necessary to both control the unpredictable Esla River and

irrigate the poor rainfed plains of the south of León’s province. However, the project was not carried out

and it was not until the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936) that it was relaunched. Significantly, the dam

faced public opposition since its very beginning. In 1933, in a letter published in Diario de León, a resident of

Riaño claimed: “We, the inhabitants of Riaño, are not willing to leave our houses and our town to see how

the adored ashes of our ancestors are flooded (…). If you really need water, then propose another location

for the reservoir, one for which not a single village has to disappear. We rather drown in the reservoir than

voluntarily leave our birthplace, the tombs of our parents and the place of our most beloved memories. We

do rather drown in the reservoir, for which you will need no water, as it will be filled with our tears.”(2)

The project was discarded due to the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and it was not

recovered at the end of the conflict due to the economic crisis of the post-war era. While the dam was not

built, in 1945 Franco’s Government decided to make a considerable investment in Riaño through the erection

of a Parador Nacional de Turismo. The new hotel was inaugurated in July, 1951 as part of a publicly owned

luxury-hotels chain founded by King Alfonso XIII of Spain in the early 1930’s (Paradores). Riaño was chosen

as the site of a parador because of the beauty of the landscape, the purity of the air and the ample trout waters

2 Cabañas González, José, “De embalses y pantanos. Lágrimas premonitorias por Riaño ya en julio de 1933,” Astorga Red Acción, July 10, 2014.

Figure 03: Parador Nacional de Turismo at Riaño. The parador was built by architect and alpinist Delgado Úbeda. It was after the opening of the parador

that Riaño became known as the “Spanish Switzerland.” In the last photo (right), King Badouin and Queen Fabiola of the Belgians in the parador in 1960.

Photos (from left to right): Txtetty/ Txetty / Todocoleccion / Saber.es.

of the Esla River, which made the town a great destination for tourists interested in nature and fishing. In

fact, the parador employed 30 people full-time, and it became a very popular hotel for international tourists

attracted to what started to be called the “Spanish Switzerland,” including King Baudoin and Queen Fabiola

of the Belgians, who stayed in Riaño in 1960 (Figure 03).

However, in 1963, only 12 years after the opening of the parador, the project for the construction of

the dam at Riaño (which had been proposed sixty years before) was relaunched after the damage caused in

the province of Zamora by the flooding of the Esla River during the winter of 1962. The dam was included

in the General Plan of Public Works (Plan General de Obras Públicas) of 1963 and it was finally carried out as

part of the plan to irrigate the region of Tierra de Campos (Plan de Regadío de Tierra de Campos) of 1965. In

fact, when the construction works started in 1966 it was said that the construction of the dam had a double

purpose: “[the dam] is essential to irrigate the eastern plains of Tierra de Campos as well as to regulate the

waters of the Esla River.”(3) In 1968 the Government started to expropriate the houses and the lands that

were going to be flooded. In the following years the administrative structures of the villages were

progressively dismantled, while the government-owned buildings and facilities were closed, including (among

many others) the schools, the town court, the property registration office, and the parador (closed in 1969).

Although the dam was already finished in 1972, the supplementary infrastructures that were needed

to close the sluice gates were not. Significantly, the construction of Nuevo Riaño, the new town that was

supposed to host the population of the seven villages that were going to be flooded, was not approved until

3 “Ordenación rural de más de setecientas mil hectáreas en Tierra de Campos,” ABC, February 26, 1966, pp. 61-62.

1974. In the meantime, most of the residents were still living in their houses, which were in fact owned by

the Government since their expropriation. However, after Franco’s death in 1975 and the subsequent

Spanish transition to democracy, the project came to a halt and it was not until 1983 (almost twenty years

after the construction works of the dam started) that the Hydrographic Confederation of the Duero River,

the socialist regional government of the Junta de Castilla y León and the socialist national government of Felipe

González relaunched the project. As soon as the project resumed, the protests started.

The demolition of Riaño (1983-1987).

On May 13, 1984 a group of young residents from Riaño climbed the dam to write

“DEMOLICIÓN” (demolition) on it (Figure 04). This action was meant to symbolize their opposition to

leaving their homes and their town, as well as their willingness to fight against the project. They claimed that

the reasons that justified the construction of the dam twenty years before were untenable. Although the

Government had argued that the dam was going to facilitate the transformation of 83,000 hectares of poor

rainfed land into irrigated land, none of the infrastructures that were necessary to do so (dikes, irrigation

canals, etc.) were neither built nor designed yet. Residents argued that it was better to transform these lands

by the construction of several smaller dams instead of the large one that was going to lead to the loss of eight

villages. Similarly, they also argued that the Esla River could be controlled with a much smaller dam that

would not entail the flooding of those villages.

According to residents, the hidden motive behind the socialist government’s resumption of a project

started during the dictatorship was compensating power company Iberduero for the closing of the Lemoniz

Figure 04: Painting of the word “DEMOLICIÓN” (demolition) in the already finished dam. May 13, 1984.

Photos (from left to right): Revista Comarcal Montaña de Riaño / Riaño Vive / Forociudad / ASAJ.

nuclear power plant, whose construction had stopped in 1983 after separatist terrorist organization ETA had

committed a series of attacks on the construction site, including the kidnapping and subsequent murder of

the chief engineer of the plant. Although Iberduero was in fact the company to which the exploitation of the

hydro-electric power plant of the dam was given, the Government rejected the residents’ claim, arguing that

the reasons for completing the dam were the same that had led to its construction more than 20 years prior:

facilitating the economic development of the poor plains of Tierra de Campos and controlling the

unpredictability of the Esla River.

Furthermore, the Government argued that the residents were not the legal owners of their houses,

since all of them had been expropriated during the dictatorship. Furthermore, as the residents recognized,

while some people were willing to give back the compensations that they had received if that allowed for the

salvage of the communities, more than half of the inhabitants of Riaño and the other villages had left during

the years following the first payments and were indeed not willing to give back the money they had received.

Nevertheless, the residents tried to argue that the rationale behind terminating the dam project went beyond

legal issues, emphasizing how paradoxical it was for a democratic leftist government to complete a Francoist

project. Their stance was very soon supported by the Communist Party, ecological groups, and intellectuals

who signed a manifesto in February, 1986 against the construction of the dam, considered an “authoritarian

project,” “insensitive with people, nature and cultural heritage.”(4)

However, one month later the residents of Riaño and the other villages received the first letters

announcing that they had to leave their houses within two months. Once this period passed, the residents

organized a demonstration in the town to show their willingness to fight (Figure 05), rallying against the

Government with placards saying, among many other slogans, “Riaño Vive” (Riaño is still alive), “Asesinos de

valles” (Valley’s murderers) and “Pantano de Riaño: Terrorismo de Estado” (Dam at Riaño: State Terrorism). The

protest had a huge media impact and it was followed by a series of demonstrations that took place not only

4 Aller, Fernando, “160 profesionales e intelectuales suscriben un manifiesto contra el pantano de Riaño,” Diario de León, February 23, 1986, page 5.

in Riaño but also in León and Madrid, including the distribution of thousands of yellow daffodils (the typical

flower of the Monataña Leonesa) in the Puerta del Sol at Madrid. Eventually, the Government decided to halt

the project until the general elections of June 22, 1986. In the meantime, the regional government subsidized

a demonstration in the villages south of Riaño that would benefit from the transformation of the poor rainfed

lands into irrigated lands: 3,000 people protested in the city of León in favor of finishing the dam. This

protest also gathered much media attention, representing the beginning of a fight between the Government

and the residents to influence public opinion. While the people from Riaño claimed in the media that the

dam was an aberrant Francoist project, the Government emphasized that the water of the dam would create

“thousands of jobs” in the south of León.

After the general elections passed and the socialist party won again, the project resumed in October,

1986 when the demolition of several houses that occupied the site where a viaduct had to be built was

scheduled. Here, the first confrontations between the residents and the employees of the Ministry of Public

Works took place. In order to prevent them, the Government decided to send anti-riot policemen to the

village. However, the villagers fought against the anti-riot police and the images showing the unequal fight

had a tremendous media impact, not only in Spain but in several international newspapers as well.

Despite the media impact, the Government decided to continue with the project. A few weeks before

the first demolition works in December, 1986, the influential news program Informe Semanal (broadcasted by

the state-owned public television network, at that time the only television channel that existed in Spain) aired

a 15-minute report entitled “Riaño: Requiem for a region” (Riaño: Requiem por una comarca). The report

denounced the construction of the dam and supported the residents’ claims, highlighting the fact that the

Figure 05: Demonstration at Riaño in opposition to the dam, May 17, 1986. In the last picture (right) residents of Riaño writing “Riaño: Guernika del PSOE,”

comparing the destruction of Riaño with the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Photos (from left to right): ASAJ / ASAJ / ASAJ / Carlos Baos.

region that was going to be flooded had a higher income per person than the rest of the country. It was not

only that eight villages were going to be flooded and an incredibly rich landscape was going to be lost, but

also that a productive, economically sustainable area was going to be dismantled. The report had such an

impact that both the national and the regional government presented formal complaints to the director of

Informe Semanal, claiming that the report about Riaño “had violated the most elemental principles of

objectivity and impartiality.” (5) In any case, in spite of the increasing negative public opinion about the

project, the minister of Public Works stated that the decision to close the dam was firm and that no alternative

project was going to be considered. On December 11, 1986, the first buildings were demolished (Figure 06).

Although the residents were able to present a legal injunction to stop the demolition works (the

Town Council claimed that they were being carried out without the required construction permits) on

February 6, 1987 a sentence determined that the demolition was legal. During the following months, while

the construction of the viaduct was taking place, the tension between the residents and the workers building

it increased. Several works of graffiti appeared in the village saying: “ETA: Riaño needs you” (ETA: Riaño te

necesita) and protesters burned the Ministry of Public Works’ bulldozers and the house of the chief engineer

of the viaduct. In fact, the demolition works in Riaño came to a halt, and it was not until the local, regional

and European elections of June, 1987 took place that the project resumed. As the socialist party won control

of the regional government again, the demolition of the entire town started.

5 Moreno, Marifé, “Resistencia popular al desalojo de viviendas en Riaño,” El País, December 11, 1986.

Figure 06: Images published in several newspapers in December, 1986 after the first demolitions. In the first picture (left) residents protesting with a placard

saying: “Socialist Party and Iberduero: Guilty” (PSOE e Iberduero Culpables). In the next pictures: “Riaño: Guernica del PSOE,” residents forming a human

barricade and, in the last picture, Concepcion Sierra crying in front of the anti-riot policemen. Her house was the first one to be demolished in Riaño.

Photos (from left to right): Diario de León / Diario de León / El País / La Crónica de León..

Anticipating that the residents were going to resist the demolition works, 300 anti-riot policemen

were sent to Riaño on July 7, 1987. Attempting to catch the residents by surprise, their arrival to the town

was unannounced. However, one of the villagers saw the trucks approaching and advised the rest of the

inhabitants by ringing the bells in the tower of the church. The residents set fire to barricades and climbed

to the roofs of their houses in an effort to save them from demolition. Guarded by the anti-riot police, the

employees of the Ministry of Public Works were able to enter the town and start demolishing the houses

that were not occupied. As the demolition works progressed and people continued to refuse to leave, the

Ministry of Public Works decided to shut off the electricity in the village on June 11, 1987. That same day,

Simón Pardo del Molino, 54 years old, committed suicide before his house was demolished.

The suicide not only had a huge effect on public opinion, but also elicited a tremendous emotional

response in the people who were still fighting, by then no more than a few dozen. After the funeral of their

neighbor, many of them decided to leave the town, burning their houses to avoid seeing them get torn down.

Actually, the fires stopped the demolition works (as it was necessary to prevent them from spreading out of

control) but eventually the demolition works continued and Riaño was completely razed by July 25, 1987

(Figure 07). During the next weeks, Anciles, Éscaro, Huelde, La Puerta, Pedrosa del Rey, and Salio, as well

as some buildings in Burón and Vegacerneja, were also demolished.

Emphasizing the drama of the demolition, many newspaper articles pointed out that at least twenty

families from Riaño and other villages whose houses were demolished didn’t have a place to go, as the

construction of Nuevo Riaño had not finished yet. Some of these families built small shanties with the rubble

of their houses, and it was not until the first days of December, 1987 that the Hydrographic Confederation

of the Duero River offered them to move to eleven prefabricated houses that were going to be installed in

the new town. A few weeks later, on December 31, 1987, the sluice gates of the dam were closed. By the

time the dam started to produce electricity for Iberduero in 1991, the Montaña Leonesa had lost almost 85

percent of its former population. While 3,100 people lived in Riaño and the other villages before the flooding,

only 556 decided to remain in Nuevo Riaño, whose construction did not finish until 1994.

“Nuevo Riaño:” Life after the demolition.

Since the conception of the new town forgetting about the demolition was impossible for those who

remained in Nuevo Riaño (556 people according to the 1991 census, 508 in 2014). The urban plan of the

village was designed by the Ministry of Public Works and the Hydrographic Confederation of the Duero

River so that it faced the water of the dam, looking to the place where the old Riaño used to be. At the same

time, as the new town was supposed to host the people from six other villages apart from Riaño, the

Provincial Landmarks Commission of León (Comisión Provincial de Patrimonio Histórico) pressured to save at

least the two most architecturally significant churches of these villages by dismantling them and rebuilding

them again in the new town. As a result of their pressure, the churches of Pedrosa del Rey and La Puerta, as

well as a vernacular stilt granary from Salio, were carefully taken apart and re-erected in Riaño.

While these decisions were made without a commemorative intention, once the town council of

Riaño took charge of the new town it made efforts to memorialize the tragic demolition of the villages. From

an architectural point of view, the most powerful memorials were probably the structure called “Bells of

Figure 07: The demolition of Riaño, July 1987.

Photos: Valentín Costo (first two rows) /Last row, from left to right: El Norte de Castilla / El Norte de Castilla / Mauricio Peña / El Norte de Castilla.

Silence” (Las campanas del silencio), and the “Villages’ Plaza” (Plaza de los Pueblos). In the sculpture, the salvaged

bells of the six churches that were demolished were installed. Regarding the plaza, it was conceived as the

main public space in the new town, and eight columns were erected to represent each of the eight villages

that were demolished, with their names inscribed on them (Figure 08).

Furthermore, today the memory of Riaño and the other villages is also celebrated in the municipal

ethnographic museum. The museum not only features a model of the church of Riaño, but also a picture of

almost every single building that existed in the eight villages before their demolition. At the same time, this

story continues to influence musicians, artists and filmmakers to this day, including painter Carmen Sopeña

(whose works are mainly about the dam), folk music group Aldaba (song “Riaño”), Celtic Rock music band

Celtas Cortos (“Riaño Vivo”) and punk rock group Gandalla (“Requiem por Riaño”), as well as the collective

Los Hijos, whose experimental documentary film “Los materiales” received a special mention to the Georges

de Beauregard Prize at the International Film Festival of Marseille (France) in 2010.

On 2012, twenty-five years after Riaño and the other six villages were demolished, the Hydrographic

Confederation of the Duero River estimated that the completion of the dam had facilitated the

transformation of 13,000 hectares of rainfed land into irrigated land (less than 16 per cent of the 83,000

hectares that were supposed to be transformed). According to their estimation, these 13,000 hectares have

created up to 650 direct jobs (considering one farmer for each 20 hectares) and 650 indirect jobs, to a total

of 1,300: The “general interest” of the dam resulted in the displacement of 3,100 people (not to mention the

damages to nature and cultural heritage) in order to create 1,300 jobs.

Figure 08: Riaño, before and after the dam / View of the structure “Bells of Silence” / Column representing Éscaro in the “Villages’ Plaza.”

Photos (from left to right): Txetty / Wikimedia Commons / Miguel Ángel García / Sara for Pueblos de España.

Conclusion.

The demolition of Riaño, Anciles, Éscaro, Huelde, La Puerta, Pedrosa del Rey and Salio exemplifies

how blurred the lines between politics, architecture, heritage and human rights can be. The paradoxical

completion of a fascist project by a socialist government, the demolition of entire towns in order to force

their inhabitants to leave, and even the destruction of the tower of Riaño, one of the last buildings to be

demolished as a morbid sign of the end of the town, all show how intertwined the inhabitants of a place, the

physical space that they occupy, and the power structures which control that space are.

The dramatic images of elderly people crying while watching their houses being demolished also

speaks to disempowerment and dispossession: The demolition was not caused by a natural disaster, but by

the action of a democratic government. Also, the occurrence of the municipal, regional and European

elections in Riaño just one month before the demolition of the entire town illustrates how some of the

mechanisms that construct a democracy can work while others are not necessarily doing so. Today, the failure

of the project as a means to transform the poor plains of the south of León into rich irrigated lands discredits

the reasons for the construction of the dam and reinforces the residents’ claim that the project was a

compensation to Iberduero for the closing of the Lemoniz nuclear power plant.

At least, the suffering of the more than 3,100 people forced to move was not in vain. The tremendous

impact that the images of the demolition caused in Spanish public opinion contributed to discard two

projects that would have had similar social and natural consequences: the dam at Vidrieros (Palencia) and

the dam at Omaña (León). While 8 villages were lost, the suffering of their residents and their battle for their

roots are considered today an essential case for the development of the so called New Culture of Water

(Nueva Cultura del Agua) in Spain, claiming for a more sustainable approach to water management (6).

Somehow, Riaño Vive.

6 Jiménez Torrecila, Néstor and Javier Martínez-Gil, “The New Culture of Water in Spain: A philosophy towards a sustainable development,” E-Water (Official Publication of the European Water Association), 2005.

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“Las máquinas abandonan Riaño hasta la segunda quincena de enero,” La Crónica de León, December 16, 1986.

“Los Verdes crearán campos de trabajo en Riaño para levantar las casas derribadas,” La Crónica de León, December 21, 1986, page 5.

Moreno, Marifé, “Miles de personas protestan en León contra la terminación del pantano de Riaño,” El País, December 22, 1986.

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Rodríguez, Gonzalo, “Cosculluela afirma que el embalse de Riaño se llenará en octubre,” El País, April 12, 1987.

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“El ministro de Obras Públicas esgrime ‘motivos de interés general’ en defensa del embalse,” El País, July 8, 1987.

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García, Rocío, “La demolición final de Riaño recrudesce la tensión,” El País, July 12, 1987.

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“Morir en Riaño,” El País (Editorial), July 12, 1987.

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“Violentos incidentes en Riaño tras el suicidio de un vecino,” El País, July 12, 1987.

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“Un proyecto para regar 83.000 hectáreas,” El País, July 12, 1987.

http://elpais.com/diario/1987/07/12/espana/553039209_850215.html (accessed April 11, 2015).

Moreno, Marifé, “El final de Riaño,” El País, July 25, 1987.

http://elpais.com/diario/1987/07/25/espana/554162423_850215.html (accessed April 11, 2015).

Moreno, Marifé, “Realojadas en albergues las familias de Riaño que vivían en chabolas,” El País, December 8, 1987.

http://elpais.com/diario/1987/12/08/espana/565916409_850215.html (accessed April 10, 2015).

“La especulación dobla el precio de la tierra de nuevos regadíos,” Diario de León, June 25, 1989.

Gil Olcina, Antonio, “Del Plan General de 1902 a la planificación hidrológica,” Investigaciones Geográficas (Universidad de Alicante), January-June 2001, number 25,

pages 5-31.

http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=17602501 (accessed April 11, 2015).

“Los alcaldes creen que la ‘deuda de Riaño’ hipotecó su agricultura,” Diario de León, July 31, 2002.

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Alcalde, Marisa, “El Parador Nacional de Riaño,” Revista Comarcal Montaña de Riaño, Winter 2002, Number 4.

http://www.revistacomarcal.es/Revista_04/parador.html (accessed April 11, 2015).

“Riaño reclamará la reposición del antiguo parador nacional en su área,” Diario de León, August 17, 2004.

http://www.diariodeleon.es/noticias/montanaoriental/riano-reclamara-reposicion-antiguo-parador-nacional-area-mas-50-manantiales-comarca_151848.html

(accessed April 11, 2015).

Jiménez Torrecila, Néstor and Javier Martínez-Gil, “The New Culture of Water in Spain: A philosophy towards a sustainable development,” E-Water (Official

Publication of the European Water Association), 2005.

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“España tiene el mayor número de grandes presas del mundo,” 20 minutos, November 14, 2005.

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/65117/0/presas/medioambiente/adena/ (accessed April 10, 2015).

Gustavo López, D., “El patrimonio de Riaño, de la demolición al olvido,” Auguitorio Magazine, 2007, number 19.

Llamazares, Julio, “Regreso a Riaño,” El País, June 21, 2007.

http://elpais.com/diario/2007/06/24/eps/1182665761_850215.html (accessed April 11, 2015).

Campo, D., “Cosculluela: ‘No echamos a nadie; en 1987 las casas ya estaban expropiadas,” La Nueva España, July 8, 2007.

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(accessed April 11, 2015).

González Rojo, Francisco Javier, “La deuda de Iberdrola con Riaño,” Diario de León, August 17, 2008.

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Romero, M., “Al caudillo se le daba mal la caña,” Diario de León, August 17, 2008.

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Gancedo, Emilio, “La película muestra lo difícil que es recuperar la identidad,” Diario de León, July 23, 2010.

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Gancedo, Emilio, “El gran éxito del documental sobre Riaño obliga al Musac a repetirlo hoy,” Diario de León, July 23, 2010.

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Gancedo, Emilo, “El agua por encima del puente,” Diario de León, October 13, 2010.

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Minguell, Jordi, “Desmitificación del cine ‘gafapasta,’” El País, January 4, 2011.

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“Los agricultores riegan sus primeras hectáreas 25 años después de Riaño,” ABC, May 11, 2011.

http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=812907 (accessed April 11, 2015).

“Riaño y la CHD, cara a cara 25 años después,” Diario de León, October 19, 2011.

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Campos, José María, “IU propone bajar la cota del pantano de Riaño para ganar 8000 km2 de montaña,” Diario de León, March 24, 2012.

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Burgos, Piluca, “Valderas exhibe la bandera de León para criticar la ‘estafa’ de Riaño”, Diario de León, May 10, 2012.

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Foces, José Ignacio, “Riaño, un cuarto de siglo bajo el agua,” El Norte de Castilla, May 6, 2012, page 26-27.

Foces, José Ignacio, “De Riaño a Payuelos y el Carrión, pasando por el Páramo Bajo,” El Norte de Castilla, May 7, 2012, pages 18-19.

Andrino, Sonia, “De la tensión a la resignación en siete meses,” El Norte de Castilla, May 8, 2012.

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Costilla, Elena R., “Recuerdo el derribo de Riaño con desolación, fue una derrota,” El Norte de Castilla, May 9, 2012.

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Andrino, Sonia, “El entierro de nueve pueblos de la montaña leonesa,” El Norte de Castilla, May 10, 2012.

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“El sufrimiento de Riaño plasmado en imágenes,” Radio Televisión de Castilla y León (rtvcyl.es), May 10, 2012.

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“Los exiliados del pantano de Riaño no olvidan sus orígenes,” Radio Televisión de Castilla y León (rtvcyl.es), May 10, 2012.

http://www.rtvcyl.es/Noticia/36AE59B9-9E12-2089-B6E91CE7E2DFA83E/exiliados/pantano/riano/no/olvidan/origenes (accessed (April 11, 2015).

Andrino, Sonia, “El Gobierno planea cuatro pequeños embalses en el Órbigo y el Carrión,” El Norte de Castilla, May 11, 2012.

http://www.elnortedecastilla.es/20120511/local/castilla-leon/gobierno-planea-cuatro-pequenos-201205110815.html (accessed April 10, 2015).

Andrino, Sonia, “Empezar de cero en un pueblo inventado,” El Norte de Castilla, May 12, 2012.

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Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel, “Riaño: mi primera vez de muchas cosas,” El Norte de Castilla, May 13, 2012.

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Campos, José María, “La propuesta de bajar la cota del pantano divide a los vecinos,” Diario de León, May 27, 2012.

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Méndez, Rafael and David Reinero, “60 años bajo la amenaza de la presa,” El País, July 6, 2012.

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Badosa, Isabel H., “El día que Riaño empezó a desmoronarse,” El Norte de Castilla, July 7, 2012.

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Cantalapiedra, Francisco, “Sensaciones, olores y recuerdos 25 años después,” El Norte de Castilla, July 7, 2012.

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“Riaño cumple 25 años de ‘drama y engaño,’” ABC, July 9, 2012.

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Menéndez, Marco, “25 años sin el Viejo Riaño,” El Comercio, July 15, 2012.

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Cabañas González, José, “De embalses y pantanos. Lágrimas premonitorias por Riaño ya en julio de 1933,” Astorga Red Acción, July 10, 2014.

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2. Books.

Burtynsky, Edward, Before the flood (Toronto: Burtynsky Studio, 2003).

Cabañas González, José, Los prolegómenos de la tragedia: Historia menuda y minuciosa de las gentes de las Tierras Bañezanas – Valduerna, Valdería, vegas del Tuerto y el Jamuz, La

Cabrera, el Páramo y la Ribera del Órbigo- y de otras localidades provinciales -León y Astorga- de 1808 a 1936 (León: Ediciones del Lobo Sapiens, 2013).

Cabrero Diéguez, Valentín, et. al., “La montaña de Riaño y Cistierna,” in La provincia de León y sus comarcas, volumen 12 (León: Diario de León, 1986).

Mayoral Gómez, Teresa et. al., Riaño (León: Gerencia Urbanística de Riaño, 1991).

Sáenz de Buruaga, Tejiendo la telaraña: rotos y descosidos en la Naturaleza Ibérica (León: Ediciones Leonesas, 2000).

Utrera Caro, Sebastián Félix, La incidencia ambiental de las obras hidráulicas: Régimen jurídico (Madrid: Editorial Dykinson, 2002).

3. Legislation. Spain, “Decreto 2755/1965, de 23 de septiembre, sobre aplicación de medidas para el desarrollo económico y social de Tierra de Campos,” Boletín Oficial del Estado,

September 29, 1965, number 233.

Spain, “Ley 162/1963, de 2 de diciembre, de inclusión en el Plan General de Obras Públicas, aprobado por la Ley de 11 de abril de 1939, de las obras de regulación

de la parte alta de los ríos Jarama y Henares, con sus afluentes, así como las del embalse de la Remolina, en el Alto Esla,” Boletín Oficial del Estado, December 5,

1963, number 291.

Spain, “Ley de 16 de diciembre de 1954, de Expropiación Forzosa,” Boletín Oficial del Estado, December 17, 1954, number 351.

Spain, “Orden de 24 de marzo de 1971 por la que se cambia la capitalidad del Registro de -la Propiedad de Riaño por la de Cistierna, por cuyo motivo la actual agrupación provisional La Vecilla-Riaño pasará a denominarse Cistierna-La Vecilla,” Boletín Oficial del Estado, April 15, 1971, number 90. Spain, “Resolución de la Dirección General de Obras Hidráulicas por la que se hace público haber sido adjudicadas las obras del proyecto de presa del embalse

de Riaño (León), a «Construcciones Civiles S. A.» y «Obras y Construcciones Dumez, Sociedad Anónima,” Boletín Oficial del Estado, July 8, 1966, number 162.

Spain, “Resolución de la Subsecretaría por la que se hace público el acuerdo de traslado de población de las localidades de Riaño y de La Puerta, de, Ayuntamiento de Riaño; de la de Pedrosa del Rey del Ayuntamiento del mismo nombre, y de la de Huelde del Ayuntamiento de Salamón, en la Provincia de León afectadas por el embalse de Riaño,” Boletín Oficial del Estado, April 4, 1968, number 82. Spain, “Resolución de la Subsecretaría por la que se hace público el acuerdo de traslado de población de las localidades de Burón, Vegacerneja, del Ayuntamiento de Burón; de las de Escaro y Anciles, del Ayuntamiento de Riaño, y de la de Salio, del Ayuntamiento de de Pedrosa del Rey en la provincia de León, afectadas por el embalse de Riaño,” Boletín Oficial del Estado, April 4, 1968, number 82.