- This article is about the River Besos in Catalonia.
The Besòs is a river flowing through Catalonia. It is called Besos when its tributaries Mogent and Congost join. It ends in the Mediterranean sea.
Its full drain area passes throught the following cities: Aiguafreda , La Garriga , Granollers, Montmeló , Mollet del Vallès , Montcada i Reixac , Santa Coloma de Gramenet , Sant Adrià de Besòs and Barcelona.
The Besos discharge has a tippical Mediterranean profile, being very irregular during the year.
Tributaries:
The Besos river has five main tributaries:
- Mogent river ,
- Congost river ,
- Tenes river ,
- Riera de Caldes stream ,
- Ripoll river
History
Despite it's never been able to navegate it, it was a link between the catalan coast and inner lands.
Its waters were used to irrigate the Barcelona plain. For this purpose aroung X century was build the Rec Comtal .
As it passes throught a highly industrialized area (Barcelona metropolian region), it was sadly famous for being the most contaminated river in Europe during 1970s and 1980s.
Since mid 90s it has been thoroughly cleaned. The Fòrum Universal de les Cultures that 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.
