An eclipse that will remain in memory
BarcelonaThese days, much has been remembered about the total solar eclipse that could be seen in Catalonia in 1905 and which already generated great social expectation; the one in 1706, coinciding with the first Bourbon siege of Barcelona, and even the one in 1448, which was immortalized in the note of an anonymous scribe in the Generalitat's registry with a drawing that is today the corporate image of the "Dietaris". For this reason, although it may seem a worn-out phrase, the historical appellation fits perfectly with the total eclipse that could be seen this August 12, 2026, in southern Catalonia, northern Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands, Aragon, and the northwest of the Peninsula. And, indeed, seeing it live, one can perfectly understand the fascination it provoked in our ancestors.
Beyond the astronomical event itself, an experience that will remain etched in collective memory, the eclipse also represented an enormous management challenge, due to the thousands upon thousands of people and visitors from all over the world who have traveled to the territories from which it could be best seen, and which in the case of Catalonia extended from the city of Tarragona to the Terres de l'Ebre. This Wednesday has been a day of complicated mobility on the roads, especially on the AP-7 and N-340, and on the Rodalies network in the southern direction, where crowds were experienced at Sants and Tarragona stations, aggravated by a breakdown on the R2 near Castelldefels. But in general, no serious incidents occurred.
The Government had designated a series of observation points, within the framework of the "Catalonia Looks at the Sky" program, which also included outreach activities. In parallel, a major scientific research project had also been launched with the Solaris application to study the impact of the eclipse on humans, a way to take advantage of the phenomenon to extract useful information for our health. In reality, science was present for a day in our lives to understand the rotation of the stars.
The eclipse has also served once again to put southern Catalonia on the map and to boost the local economy, but this does not hide that it is a historically mistreated territory, which only in recent years has seen its landscape and gastronomy revalued. From this point of view, the eclipse shows that territorial rebalancing is still a pending issue and that there are areas that need special support to combat depopulation and lack of prospects.
In any case, even though there may be people who think that too much has been made of all this, it is still positive to be able to live an experience like this in community. In a world full of wars and conflicts, and in societies increasingly polarized and divided by hatred of the different, the eclipse places us before the evidence that there is only one planet Earth. For one day, everyone has been focused on the Sun and the Moon, regardless of who was next to them.
