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Besòs

The Besòs is a river flowing through Catalonia, Spain. It is called Besòs when its tributaries Mogent and Congost join. It ends in the Mediterranean sea. Its full drain area passes through the following cities: Aiguafreda, La Garriga, Les Franqueses, Canovelles, Granollers, Montmeló, Mollet del Vallès, Montcada i Reixac, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona and Sant Adrià de Besòs. The Besos discharge has a typical Mediterranean profile, it is very irregular during the year.

Tributaries

The Besòs river has five main tributaries:

• Mogent river
• Congost river
• Tenes river
• Riera de Caldes stream
• Ripoll river

History

Impossible to navigate, it was nonetheless a link between the Catalan coast and the interior. Its waters were used to irrigate the Barcelona plain. For this purpose, around the tenth century, the Rec Comtal was built.

As it passes through a highly industrialized area (Barcelona metropolian region), it had the dubious honor of being the most contaminated river in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s. Since the mid-1990s, it has been thoroughly cleaned. The Fòrum Universal de les Cultures, which 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.

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Coordinates: 41°27′29″N 2°11′39″E / 41.45806, 2.19417