Millions of people watched the first total solar eclipse over mainland Spain in more than a century on Wednesday, cheering as the moon completely blocked out the sun under mostly clear skies.
Live television footage from across the country showed crowds applauding, shouting, laughing and jumping with excitement as daylight briefly turned to darkness. A presenter for Spanish public broadcaster RTVE was visibly moved, describing the spectacle as a "magical and unforgettable moment."
The eclipse first reached totality in A Coruña in north-western Spain, where the sun disappeared completely behind the moon at 8:27 pm (1827 GMT) and 41 seconds, marking the first total solar eclipse over mainland Spain since 1905.
Day turned to night there for one minute and 18 seconds before the moon's shadow moved rapidly across areas including Castile, León, Aragon and Valencia before reaching the Balearic Islands.
Depending on the location, totality lasted from around 30 seconds to around two minutes along a path nearly 300 kilometres wide. Some spectators had set up telescopes, while others captured the historic moment on their phones.
No major incidents were initially reported, although traffic jams and disruption were seen in many areas. Authorities had expected up to 1.5 million additional car journeys into the path of totality.
On Mallorca, the influx of visitors was already causing disruption earlier in the day, particularly around Sóller on the island's west coast, according to media reports.
Several car parks in the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range were full hours before the eclipse began and some access roads were closed.
The rare event drew hundreds of thousands of visitors from Spain and abroad. Hotels along the path of totality had been fully booked in many places for months, while some residents rented out balconies and rooftop terraces with clear views of the horizon for several hundred euros.
RTVE showed an 80-strong group of Finnish amateur astronomers gathered in Soria, around 200 kilometres north-east of Madrid.
A group of 140 people from Denmark had also travelled to Soria after booking the trip two years earlier.
