The Spanish village where the night will come twice

A tiny village in northern Spain with only around 10 permanent residents is preparing for an influx of visitors for a rare total solar eclipse on August 12, when darkness will briefly fall twice in one evening before the Perseid meteor shower lights up the night sky, BBC reports.

Avellanosa de Muñó, in the province of Burgos, lies directly within the narrow path of totality for the eclipse, making it one of the few locations in mainland Europe where the phenomenon will be fully visible. The event will be the first total solar eclipse seen from mainland Europe since 1999 and the first visible from mainland Spain since 1912, according to Madrid-based physicist Dr María Teresa López Sánchez.

The village's open landscape of wheat fields and low hills offers an unobstructed view of the western horizon, making it an attractive location for eclipse enthusiasts seeking optimal viewing conditions away from larger crowds.

The eclipse will occur shortly before sunset, producing what López described as a double twilight effect, "like living two sunsets in a few minutes". Later the same night, the annual Perseid meteor shower is also expected to be visible under dark rural skies.

Local resident Sara Álvarez Rodríguez, who was born in the village in 1937 and has lived there ever since, recommended the caves overlooking the settlement as the best viewing point.

"Go up towards the cave," she says, "from there you can see everything."

Once home to around 200 people in the 1950s, Avellanosa de Muñó has seen its population shrink over decades as mechanisation transformed agriculture and younger residents moved to cities including Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona in search of work.

Former resident Raúl Grande Revilla, who now lives in Madrid but returns regularly, said the eclipse has prompted many families with roots in the village to come back.

Grande plans to return with around 20 relatives and friends, while other residents are also expecting visitors from across Spain as well as from the UK, France and Venezuela.

Dr Lucrezia López, a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Santiago de Compostela, said one-off events such as the eclipse can encourage people "to rediscover a place they already have some connection to".

Interest in the eclipse has also boosted tourism across the wider Burgos region. The nearby Parador de Lerma hotel has been fully booked for the event since 2022, while much of the surrounding accommodation has also filled up.

Alberto Bosque Coello of the Castilla y León tourism board said: "Most of our accommodation is fully booked. In fact, it was booked well in advance," adding that eclipse specialists were looking for "the best place, not the best-known place" because they wanted optimal viewing conditions.

Grande said he had even helped find accommodation in the village for a Californian family travelling to Spain for the eclipse so they would not miss totality in Madrid.

Reflecting on the sudden international attention focused on his hometown, Grande smiled and replied, "Tal cual" (That's exactly it).

During totality, the Sun will be only about eight degrees above the western horizon, making the caves above the village one of the area's most sought-after viewing points. Long a gathering place for local residents to watch sunsets, the site is expected to host both returning families and first-time visitors.

For one evening, the village's usually quiet streets are expected to fill with relatives, friends and eclipse watchers before, as the Sun disappears behind the Moon, Avellanosa de Muñó briefly becomes one of the world's prime locations to witness a once-in-a-generation celestial event.