11th century church is being engulfed by rising reservoir in Spain

Drought-quenching rain is a welcome sight in Spain, and a nearly 1,000-year-old church resting on the bottom of the Sau Reservoir is almost completely underwater following wet weather.

Spain has been battling drought for months on end, and an unusually wet March has helped to fill critical water reservoirs, including one with a historic landmark resting at the bottom.

The old church of Saint Romà de Sau was built in the 11th century but was submerged in 1962 following the construction of the Sau Reservoir, located in northeastern Spain about 45 miles north of Barcelona.

During times of drought, when the reservoir is nearly empty, the nearly 1,000-year-old church is unveiled, and people can walk to visit the building. This has been the case multiple times in recent years, including at the end of 2024 and the start of 2025. However, a shift in the weather has helped to refill the depleted reservoir, submerging the church once again.

"It is impressive how the reservoir has completely changed," Jordi Bonich, a neighbor from Barcelona told Catalan News over the weekend. "I, personally, prefer to see it at full capacity as water is life."

However, the drought-quenching rain came at a cost.

Flash flooding forced evacuations and damaged communities across the country earlier in the month, with the deluge making this month the wettest March in Madrid since record-keeping began in the 1890s.

Still, the drought has not yet been completely eradicated, and more rain is needed to top off reservoirs across the country.

“We’ve come out of drought, but it’s not that there is a huge excess of water,” Rubén del Campo told The Associated Press. “Spain is a country where water resources are never abundant.”

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