It is located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from Alarcón, in the province of Cuenca, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.

The reservoir formed by the dam has a water capacity of 1,112 million cubic metres (902 thousand acre-feet) and spans a surface area of 6,840 hectares (26 square miles).

Construction of the dam began in 1941 through the efforts of Valencian farmers who wanted to stabilize the flow of the river, as irrigation in the province of Valencia depends on that supply of water.

This initiative is unique in Spanish history because rather than the State, it was the farmers who assumed the total cost of the project, having organized under the Unidad Sindical de Usuarios del Júcar (USUJ, Júcar Users' Coalition), an alliance of irrigation communities [es].

[3] Beneath the waters of the Alarcón Reservoir rest the remains of the town of Gascas, which was flooded after the building of the dam.