El Salto Dam
El Salto Dam (), located on the Guadalquivir River in the municipal district of El Carpio (Province of Córdoba, Spain), comprises a dam and its corresponding hydroelectric power station. The dam is situated near the 3.3 km mark on the Pedro Abad-Adamuz highway (CO-412). Its Neo-Mudéjar design is the result of a collaboration between architect Casto Fernández Shaw and engineers Carlos Mendoza and Antonio del Águila. The Madrid-based engineering consulting firm undertook construction of the dam between 1918 and 1922. Since its inception, the dam has proved valuable to the local population for its contribution to the development and economic expansion of the area. Design Built on the site of some old water mills, the dam creates a grade in the riverbed through the use of two abutments, one on each bank of the river, and five interior buttresses. The buttresses, which sustain the bridge and the six sluice gates, also hold up the metal structure bearing the machines that operate the gates. The abutment on the right bank forms an arched portal over the roadway and houses the access stairway to the control room, whose crowning octagonal turret once bore a dome. This dome, the horseshoe arch and alfiz,