What you can see on the Benasque webcams
In Benasque the camera looks down from the town hall on the stone-paved square, with its benches and trees and the old houses around it; you can see whether people are out, whether the paving is wet and how the light falls. In Cerler the camera faces the stone apartment buildings and the bend of the road at the entrance to the village, with a rocky ridge of the valley rising behind them. Both are still images, not video: the reload button brings the latest one each has sent.
The town-hall square in Benasque
Benasque town council keeps this camera on its town hall, looking down on the square in front of it. The paving is laid in stone with large curving patterns; there are benches, planters and a few trees, and stone houses close the square on the left and at the back. People sitting on the benches, delivery vans and parked cars give the scale.
It is a still image, not a video: the reload button brings the latest one, with its date and time at the top. It shows whether the paving is dry, wet or white, whether the sun reaches the square and how busy the centre of town is.
The entrance to Cerler village
The second camera of Benasque town council stands at the entrance to Cerler, the village above Benasque at the foot of the Cerler ski slopes. It looks across the road junction, with its pedestrian crossing and road markings, to a row of stone apartment buildings with wooden balconies and steep slate roofs; behind them rises a high, rocky ridge of the valley, catching the morning sun.
It is a still image, not a video, with the date and time printed at the top. It is the camera to check before driving up to the slopes: whether the road is clear, wet or covered in snow, and how much snow lies on the mountain behind.
Benasque and the giants of the Pyrenees
The valley is sometimes called the Hidden Valley, because it is closed to the south by a narrow gorge and to the north by the highest mountains in the range. The Aneto, at 3,404 m (11,168 ft) the highest summit of the Pyrenees, and the Posets, the second highest, rise on either side of it, inside the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park. Cerler, on a terrace above Benasque, is the highest village in the Aragonese Pyrenees, and its ski slopes, which have their own page as Cerler, start just above the houses.
When to watch Benasque
Benasque is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. In midwinter the sun clears the mountains late and drops behind them early, so the square spends a good part of the day in shade; the ridge behind Cerler catches the light first. Summer mornings are usually clear, while afternoon storms are common over the high peaks. In winter, the cameras show at a glance whether there is fresh snow in the streets.
Around Benasque
Up the valley, the Llanos del Hospital is the starting point for walks into the high mountains and for the climb to the Aneto, and a cross-country skiing area in winter. The town itself keeps stone mansions from the 16th and 17th centuries, and the road south runs through the dramatic Congosto de Ventamillo gorge.
Visiting Benasque
The nearest airport with flights from the UK is Toulouse, about 154 miles (247 km) away, around three and a half hours by car through the Val d'Aran. Barcelona is about 185 miles (297 km). In winter carry snow chains, and check the road before driving up the valley.
