Sequía e ingeniería. El incremento del aforo del Turia con los caudales de la laguna de Tortajada (Teruel) en 1457 y el maestro Rodrigo Marquina, “experto” hidráulico

Abstract

The city of Valencia favours in 1457, because of the tought drought of years 1455-57, the draining
of the pool of Tortajada (Teruel), in order to increase the flow of river Alfambra an so, therefore, the
volume of river Turia all his so as to improve the watering of the “Huerta” of Valencia. The present
article reports with accuracy on the realization of the project. Although, the results were really
disappointing and so, the project was left, this article represents a part of the valencian and turolian
hydraulic medieval history and it is as well a good example of the difficulties that promoters of that
era ideas had to face up with. Another part of this job is the biography of Rodrigo Marquina, the only
one maker that has been identified with the project and he ́s known as an “expert” in the topic, in fact,
he seems to have been very interested in areas that are nowadays related to engineering.