The
Ebro (Spanish,
pronounced&_160;[eß?o]) or
Ebre (Catalan,
pronounced&_160;[eß??] or
[eß?e]) is
Spain's most voluminous river. Its source is in
Fontibre (
Cantabria). It flows through cities such as
Miranda de Ebro,
Logroño,
Zaragoza,
Flix,
Tortosa, and
Amposta before discharging in a
delta on the
Mediterranean Sea in the province of
Tarragona.
The Romans named this river Iber (Iberus Flumen), hence its current name but probably derives from the Greek Hèvros, ?ß???. Arguably the whole peninsula and some of the peoples living there were named after the river.[1]
In antiquity, The Ebro was used as the dividing line between Roman (north) and Carthaginian (south) expansions after the First Punic War. When Rome, fearful of Hannibal's growing influence in the Iberian Peninsula, made the city of Saguntum (considerably south of the Ebro) a protectorate of Rome, Hannibal viewed this treaty as an aggressive action by Rome and used the event as the catalyst to the Second Punic War.
One of the earliest Cistercian monasteries in Spain, Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda (Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Wheel), is located on the banks of the Ebro in Aragon. This edifice survives to the present intact, having been established in the year 1202 AD. The monastery is strongly connected to the Ebro, since it used one of the first large waterwheels established in Spain for the production of power. The monastery also diverted flow from the Ebro to create a circulating hydrological central heating system for its buildings.
