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The Sau reservoir, in the Osona region (Barcelona), has a surprise: when the drought hits, lowering the level of the reservoir enough, it reveals a superb stone bell tower that has been submerged since 1962. The tower belongs to Sant Romà de Sau, a Romanesque church from the 11th century that Franco's regime sank (normally up to 23 meters deep) to supply water to Barcelona.

In fact, during the pressing crisis of 2023, the drought left it completely on land, as photographed by NASA from space. That it is more than a thousand years old and still standing even despite living submerged is commendable, but it is also the oldest church in the world that is preserved standing in water according to the Official World Record.

Once upon a time there was a church (and a town) submerged in a swamp. More specifically, the church of Sant Romà de Sau is in the Lombard Romanesque style and was consecrated in the year 1061. It was originally built with a single nave oriented from east to west and with a three-story square bell tower attached to it, precisely the one that can be seen when there is a drought. The church, which is normally submerged 23 meters deep, is not exactly the original: it has been accumulating interventions, such as a reform and expansion after the damage of an earthquake or a remodeling in the 19th century, when the apse was demolished and the orientation of the temple changed.

The bell tower is the vestige of what was once there: the church of a town that was also submerged. The settlement of Sant Romà dates back to 917. Before the water level rose and flooded everything, 300 inhabitants lived there in the mid-20th century who were dedicated to agriculture, livestock and forestry. That of Sant Romà is another story of towns submerged after the execution of the hydraulic project, which led to the expropriation of homes and agricultural farms, its inhabitants had to leave their home without taking part in the matter or receiving compensation.

Context. The water that reaches the Catalan capital comes mainly from the Ter and Llobregat rivers through a network of reservoirs. In the case of the Ter, specifically the reservoirs of Sau and those of Susqueda and Pasteral. The metropolitan area of Barcelona suffered significant demographic growth during Franco's development, so the infrastructure was no longer adequate. The construction of the reservoir falls precisely within those years, although the original project dates back to 1931 and work did not begin until 1942.

As the professor and director of the Department of History at the University of Santiago de Compostela Daniel Lanero explains to Newtral.es, what the Franco regime did was "give continuity to the hydraulic policy that had been put into practice since the end of the 19th century." Beatriz García, professor of contemporary history at the University of León, explains the two bases of this water resources management policy: the general plan for irrigation canals and swamps of 1902 and the national plan for hydraulic works approved in the Second Republic.

Why it is important. That this church breaks conservation records in such complicated conditions does not mean that it is eternal: in 1999 it already had to be restored after decades under water due to the weakness of its structure. In any case, the church of Sant Romà de Sau is a clear example of "submerged heritage", a category that archeology and cultural law have been trying to regulate for decades without much success.

The sinking of Sant Romà and its church is not an isolated case but rather a common practice of the Franco regime: the construction of reservoirs during the dictatorship meant the displacement of tens of thousands of people from their towns in a traumatic process of forced displacement from places rooted in their population. In the Spanish state alone there are about 500 towns that were swallowed up by the water due to the construction of dams and reservoirs.

Cover | joan ggk and Quico Llach