Directions 
16.2.b Peares
GEOMORPHOLOGY OF THE RIVER SIL
The river Sil sources at an altitude of almost 2000 metres next to Peña Orniz (León), runs for 237 kilometres through the provinces of León, Lugo and Ourense, and flows into the river Miño in the place where we are.
Along its route we can observe two types of landscape, marked by the characteristics of the rocks that form the terrain. When the rocks are soft, such as slate, the river flows wide and open, while in granite areas the river flows into deep valleys, being the most spectacular example the Sil Canyon.
The Sil Canyon is about 35 kilometres long and ends abruptly at its mouth in the Miño. It has spectacular granite walls up to 500 metres high above the river, and its natural wealth is protected as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) of the Natura 2000 Network.
INFRASTRUCTURES
The place of Os Peres are located at the junction of the rivers Miño and Sil, and is also an important place in the communications between Monforte de Lemos and Ourense (and therefore between Castilla-León and the south of Galicia). Because these two reasons we can see important engineering works such as those described below:
Os Peares Dam. The Miño river flows down from Portomarín to Os Peares, reason which this was the place chosen in 1947 to build a reservoir for electricity generation that would be one of the great engineering works of this time. This wall, 94 metres high and 261 metres long at its highest point, collects 182 Hm3 of water and was completed in 1955.
Railway bridge. This bridge was designed by the engineer Manuel Maese in 1880 and built by the belgian company Braine Le Comte (also the author of the International Bridge of Tui), to join the railway connections between Monforte de Lemos and Ourense, which until then had been crossed by barges.
Its construction was scheduled to be completed in 1885, but the official test was finally carried out on 18th September 1888, a milestone that the media of the time highlighted in their articles: "Four road cylinders and two large wagons full of stone, pulled by 24 pairs of oxen, passed happily, without the enormous weight of 40 tons causing the bridge to drop more than half a centimetre, nor were the lateral movements of any importance".
Viaduct of the N-120. In the early 1990s, work began on the remodelling of the N-120 national road between Monforte de Lemos and Ourense, which would considerably reduce journey times and improve safety.
The biggest challenge was the crossing of the Miño and Sil rivers in the area of Os Peares, which was solved with the construction of a viaduct 250 metres long at a height of 75 metres, with its central pillars resting on both banks of the Sil and 100 metres apart from each other.
