Live cameras in Ponferrada, Spain

Ponferrada is the capital of El Bierzo, a green mountain-ringed basin in the west of the province of León, in Castile and León, Spain. It is the province's second-largest municipality, with about 64,000 residents. The name comes from the Latin for iron bridge, after the iron-reinforced crossing over the River Sil that a bishop of Astorga built in 1082 for pilgrims bound for Santiago de Compostela. The French Way of the Camino still passes right through the old town, and Ponferrada is the last large city pilgrims reach before Galicia.

The Knights Templar held the town from the late twelfth century until their order was dissolved in the early fourteenth, and their great castle, the Castillo de los Templarios, still towers over the Sil. In the twentieth century Ponferrada became a coal and power town, and the old Compostilla power plant now houses the Energy Museum.

The A-6 through El Bierzo

Every image here comes from a camera of the DGT, the Spanish government's traffic directorate, and each is a still photo renewed every few minutes. The A-6 motorway between Madrid and A Coruña bypasses Ponferrada, and the cameras watch it and its links on the way up toward the mountain passes into Galicia, where snow and fog can close or slow the road in winter.

Spain's official time is set to Central European Time, which leaves this far-western corner with very late daylight: summer sunsets come close to ten in the evening, while short December days end before six. Winters can be cold and foggy in the valley, and summers warm and dry, good for the Bierzo vineyards and its prized roasted peppers. The town's best-known party is the Noche Templaria in early July, when the old quarter fills with knights, a night parade and tournaments.

The golden, eroded hills of Las Médulas, an ancient Roman gold mine and UNESCO site, lie about twenty-five kilometers southwest.

Sources: Ponferrada - Wikipedia · Noche Templaria 2026 - Ponferrada events calendar · Las Médulas - UNESCO World Heritage Centre.