Every time I leave Barcelona at night, I’m chasing the same thing: a sky dark enough for the Milky Way to be visible to the naked eye. Over the past few years I’ve explored Catalonia looking for medieval castles, hilltop hermitages and ruined monasteries that could serve as a stage under the stars. In this article I’ll show you nine of those locations and the three techniques I use most: Milky Way, star trails/vortex and light painting. And if reading about it makes you want to experience it yourself, I run night photography escapes across Catalonia where I teach you, step by step, how to capture these same skies.
The Milky Way over the castle of La Bisbal de Montsant — the featured case study of this article.
Why leave Barcelona to shoot the night sky
When I shoot from the city, light pollution seriously limits what I can capture of the night sky: streetlights, illuminated buildings and the urban glow itself “burn out” the fainter stars and largely erase the Milky Way from the frame. I only need to travel an hour to ninety minutes outside Barcelona, to areas like Priorat, Segarra, Osona or Bages, to find much darker skies — and, alongside them, historic buildings that I use as the perfect focal point under a starry sky.
The techniques below all share the same starting point: long exposures, many frames per scene, and a stacking process on the computer to reveal everything the naked eye can’t see directly. Let’s go through them one by one.
Before you head out: always check a light pollution map and the lunar calendar before planning your trip — a night with a full moon, or close to one, drastically reduces the visibility of the Milky Way, no matter how dark the location.
Technique 01 — Milky Way: the galactic arch over the Catalan landscape
Capturing a sharp Milky Way requires dark skies, a moonless night and a bit of technical patience. Between 21 and 31 frames per scene, ISO 1600-3200, f/2.8 and roughly 15 seconds of exposure, with a wide-angle lens such as a 14-24mm set to 18mm — the “sweet spot” of focus for this optic.
Editing process: the frames are first edited in Lightroom, exported as TIFFs and stacked in Sequator; they then go through a David Boixo Photography plugin in Photoshop to pull out all the detail from the stack, with a final pass of color and light in Lightroom.
Canyet — the Milky Way over the coastal rocks
📍 Costa Brava
At Cala Canyet, within the town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the galactic arch rises over rocks eroded by the sea, with the water’s reflection completing the scene. The rocky coastline, lit softly in warm tones, contrasts with the deep blue of the night sky and the glow of the galactic core peeking just above the sea horizon. It’s one of the most accessible locations on the list if you’re after sea and starry sky in the same frame, without a long hike to reach the shooting spot.
Castell de Besora — the galaxy rising vertically above the tower
📍 Osona
The Castell de Besora stands in the municipality of Santa Maria de Besora, in Osona, perched atop a rocky spur at 1,092 metres of altitude. From here, in vertical format, the Milky Way rises right above the castle’s ruined tower, over the farmhouse still standing at its base. The framing uses the silhouette of the whole complex to add depth to the composition.
Mirador del Meandro del Ter — the river bends into a horseshoe under the stars
📍 L’Esquirol, Osona
The Monestir de Sant Pere de Casserres, located in Masies de Roda (Osona), is the only Benedictine monastery in the region. Dating from the 11th century, it stands on a promontory wrapped by a sharp bend in the river Ter, next to the Sau reservoir. From the Mirador del Ter, on the opposite bank and within the town of L’Esquirol, you get the most famous panorama of the whole scene: the monastery crowning the promontory, almost entirely surrounded by water. This natural viewpoint, overlooking the Monastery of Sant Pere de Casserres, offers one of the most striking compositions in the series: the Ter river forming an almost perfect bend beneath the arch of the Milky Way.
Technique 02 — Star trails and vortex: the sky spinning over centuries-old stone
Because of the Earth’s rotation, if you photograph the night sky for a good while and stack all the frames together, the stars leave circular trails around the North Star. Depending on how it’s processed, the result is known as star trails or a vortex when the swirling effect is emphasized.
Editing process: around 31 frames per scene, ISO 3200, f/2.8, a minimum of 15 seconds of exposure, with the 14-24mm lens set to 18mm. The frames get a light edit in Lightroom, are exported as TIFFs (Adobe 1998 profile, 16-bit) and stacked in Sequator into a single final frame.
Castell de Boixadors — the star swirl wraps around the chapel
📍 l’Anoia
The Castell de Boixadors rises on a hill in the municipality of Sant Pere Sallavinera, in l’Anoia, at 847 metres of altitude and at the western end of the Serra de Castelltallat, overlooking the Calaf plateau. The chapel and the castle tower are framed by a star vortex spinning around a fixed point high in the frame — one of the clearest examples of how this technique turns a historic building into the absolute center of the scene.
Puig Agut — one of the most striking vortex shots in the series
📍 Osona
The Santuari de Puig-agut stands on the outskirts of Manlleu, in Osona, atop a hill 696 metres high — the highest point in the municipality. Built in 1886 in neo-Gothic style and dedicated to the Sacred Heart, this small hermitage stands out for its facade decorated with pebbles forming the silhouettes of churches across Catalonia. Its isolated setting, with nothing around it, makes it the perfect focal point: the star swirl unfolds in every direction, with color tones visible on the horizon thanks to distant light pollution turned into an almost painterly effect.
Castell de les Sitges — the crenellated tower beneath a spinning sky
★ Recommended for beginnersCastell de les Sitges is one of the few locations on the list with two techniques captured: vortex and Milky Way. The crenellated tower, with its well-preserved stone walls, offers a solid focal point for both the star swirl and the galactic arch, depending on the night and the framing you’re after. That’s exactly why it’s the location I recommend for taking your first steps in night photography: relatively dark skies, easy access, and equally well suited to practicing star trails/vortex as to shooting your first Milky Way.
Vía Láctea, Castell de les Sitges
Monestir de Santa Maria de Vallsanta — the ruined Gothic arch
📍 Cornudella de Montsant, Priorat
The Gothic ruins of the monastery, with their great pointed arch still standing, frame an almost perfect star vortex. It’s also one of the few locations where all three techniques from this article come together: vortex, Milky Way, and a touch of light painting with a flashlight inside the ruin.
Technique 03 — Light painting: drawing with light under a starry sky
With a long exposure and a moving light source, it’s possible to “draw” shapes that get recorded in the photograph while the stars keep trailing above.
Radar meteorològic de la Panadella — a beam of light pointing to the stars
📍 Montmaneu, l’Anoia
Located near the Creu del Vent, at 825 metres of altitude, the Panadella weather radar silhouettes its tower against a star vortex spinning around a fixed point in the sky. A person holding a flashlight, aimed upward, traces the vertical beam of light connecting the ground to the stars — that same light source, combined with the long exposures needed for the vortex, completes the whole scene.
Far del Fangar — a beam of light toward the lighthouse, beneath a star vortex
📍 Ebro Delta
A hand-held beam of light connects the figure in the foreground to the lighthouse, while the entire sky spins into a star vortex. The lighthouse’s own red and white light is clearly visible, adding color to the whole scene without any extra effect needed.
La Bisbal de Montsant: a commission that ended up on a gallery wall
📍 Priorat
This shot of the Milky Way over the castle of La Bisbal de Montsant, in the Priorat, didn’t start out as just another outing: it was commissioned by the Ateneu Bisbalenc, which wanted an image for its permanent exhibition about the town. It had to be flawless — and it still hangs in the Ateneu’s exhibition hall today, alongside other photographs dedicated to La Bisbal.
To pull it off, I doubled my usual frame count: instead of the 21-31 frames of a standard Milky Way shot, I captured 51 frames for this one. The reason was the strong glow cast by the village’s own lights across the lower part of the frame — an extra challenge that called for more source material so I could properly balance the scene in the final edit.
Technical process: the 51 frames were lightly edited in Lightroom and exported as TIFFs with an Adobe 1998 color profile at 16-bit. They were then stacked in Sequator into a single combined frame, which I revisited in Lightroom, working the image with several layers to balance the strong light from the village at the bottom of the frame.
Fun fact: this is the only photograph in the series that started life as a specific commission rather than a personal outing.
Photo Tour Barcelona
Want to learn night photography with a local guide?
These 9 locations are just a taste of what you can photograph outside Barcelona with the right techniques. Join one of my night photography escapes and learn Milky Way, star trails or light painting alongside a local photographer who knows every corner of Catalonia.
This isn’t a sightseeing tour. It’s a hands-on photography class with the real landscape as your classroom.
Catalonia · Night Photography
The 9 locations at a glance
3 techniques · spread across Priorat, Osona, l’Anoia and the Costa Brava
MILKY WAY
Cala Canyet — Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Costa Brava
MILKY WAY
Castell de Besora — Osona
MILKY WAY
Mirador del Meandro del Ter — L’Esquirol, Osona
VORTEX
Castell de Boixadors — l’Anoia
VORTEX
★ Recommended for beginnersPuig Agut — Osona
VORTEX + MILKY WAY
★ Recommended for beginnersCastell de les Sitges
VORTEX + MILKY WAY + LIGHT PAINTING
Monestir de Santa Maria de Vallsanta — Cornudella de Montsant, Priorat
LIGHT PAINTING
Radar meteorològic de la Panadella — Montmaneu, l’Anoia
LIGHT PAINTING
Far del Fangar — Ebro Delta
