Riba-roja d'Ebre

Camino del Ebro

TarragonaCatalunya · Cataluña

Transparent Catalan toponym. Riba-roja, from the Catalan riba (Latin ripa, 'shore, bank') plus roja ('red'), description of the red clay cliffs of the Ebro meander. D'Ebre places the town on the eponymous river.

The town was a Muslim stronghold until 1153, year of its Christian reconquest by Ramon Berenguer IV. The Riba-roja reservoir, built in 1969, regulates the Ebro flow between Mequinenza and Flix and submerged part of the old municipal term.

Evolution of the name

  1. ripa rubea late Latin 5th–9th centuries
  2. Riba-roja medieval Catalan from the 12th century

Reflections, to the letter

The name hides nothing; just look at the ground. The village rises on a terrace of sandstone and fierce red clay, and the old town spills down that slope toward the Ebro. The red riverbank that christened the place still stains every lane and every margin of the river below the bend.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Riba-roja Reservoir
Reservoir built between 1962 and 1969 in the Ebro bed between Mequinenza and Flix, with 207 cubic hectometre capacity and 280 MW hydroelectric production. It regulates the river's flow in the middle stretch and supplies water to the city of Tarragona. Its construction submerged cultivation lands of the Riba-roja, Almatret and Faió terms.

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Camino del Ebro

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Fuentes de Ebro
  3. Pina de Ebro
  4. Quinto
  5. Sástago
  6. Caspe
  7. Mequinenza
  8. Riba-roja d'Ebre
  9. Ascó
  10. Flix
  11. Miravet
  12. Aldea
  13. Benifallet
  14. Tivenys
  15. ··· toward the start