Pantà de Foix, Reservoir in Spain

Pantà de Foix is a reservoir on the 41 km Foix River in Castellet i la Gornal, Alt Penedès, near the Garraf border. Its water covers about 66 hectares, and the wetland area totals some 79 hectares. The dam, raised to 32 m after seepage problems in 1913, is finished in stone and concrete; the photograph shows a crenellated stone wall with squared merlons and an arched gateway closed by a dark vertical-bar metal gate, with a low parapet along the paved walkway and forested hills across the water.

The idea of damming the Foix arose in the late 19th-century agrarian crisis, when phylloxera ruined the vineyards and wine prices fell. Project planning began in 1901, and in 1907 state aid procedures started and a syndicate of irrigators was formed. The dam was inaugurated in 1928, irrigation began in 1937, and the planned canal network was completed in 1943.

The Foix reservoir is managed as the Parc del Foix by the Diputació de Barcelona through a consortium joined by Castellet i la Gornal in 1995 and Santa Margarida i els Monjos in 2002. Its water still irrigates 2,300 hectares farmed by some five hundred growers, and the marsh ring of reeds and white poplars at the tail of the reservoir shelters herons, ducks and coots.

The area is crisscrossed with walking paths ranging from short family walks to longer loops around the entire reservoir. There are two bird observation points, one accessible for those with limited mobility, and the water itself is not suitable for swimming or water sports.

The dam's original storage capacity has been halved by sediment trapped behind it, and only two of its three sluice gates still work, according to the Catalan Water Agency. In the flash flood of 12 July 2025 the reservoir could not hold an estimated 400 m³/s and overflowed, causing damage downstream; the mayors of Cubelles and Cunit raised concerns about the dam's capacity.