It is functionally and aesthetically perfectly integrated into the terrain and was designed by the architect Miladin Pećinar.

The construction works were completed in 1938 when the road that today leads from the dam to the monastery church of St. Andrew and the mountain lodge were actually built.

St. Andrew is a school-type power plant because everything is visible in it, down to the impeller, unlike the newer dams, in which all parts are armoured.

The dam is deliberately not higher than 30 m (98 ft) so that if the waters rise, St. Andrew's Monastery will not be flooded.

After the second flood, which occurred in 1979, the employees managed to sort out the chaos and put the dam back into operation in seven days.