Photo Library
The Fototeca de Catalunya Viewer facilitates access to the catalog of vertical aerial photographs from 1942 to the present day
The catalogue of vertical aerial photographs of the Photo Library of Catalonia includes the analogue and digital frames used for the cartographic production of the ICGC and covers from 1942 to the present day. It is made up of more than two million frames, a figure that is constantly growing as digital frames from flights carried out periodically are incorporated, constituting one of the most relevant assets for the study of the evolution of the territory.
In the Photo Library web viewer you can consult more than one million frames of the Catalan territory that are digital or have been digitised, from 1944 to the present day. As the digitisation of the analogue frames progresses, these will also be available in the Photo Library web viewer..
Dates of interest
- Date of creation: June 2023.
- Date of update: June 2024.
The viewer is composed of the following modules:
Search modes
To search for frames of Catalonia you can click on the map or use the search bar, which also offers other search modes described in the examples below.
- Interactive search clicking on the map.
- Search examples for the search bar:
- By address: Passeig de Santa Madrona 45, Barcelona.
- By place name: Barcelona.
- By road: C25 km 100; C25, 100.
- By coordinates: EPSG:4258 2.15 41.37; EPSG:25831 429394 4580170.
- By cadastral reference: 14 first digits 9503802DF2890D
- By frame name: 2014134001780443; 1010800246048.
Consult and download
You can use the search engine or perform an interactive search by clicking on the map (the location of the frames is approximate). If you find a wrongly positioned photo, you can report it using the "Report an error" tool.
Selection of interest period
The search can be carried out by location or by clicking on any point on the map of Catalonia to obtain information on the frames available at that point. Once the point of interest has been located, the range of available dates is displayed, allowing navigation between the different years using a timeline.
The main screen shows the location of the frame centres of the selected year and also shows the list of frames and their relevant information, such as the flight date or the resolution or pixel size of the image.
The flight date can contain anything from the year to the exact time of capture, depending on the information available for the frame..
The viewer allows you to adjust the opacity level of the information, to compare the frame with the base layer, as well as other display options depending on the quality of the orientation available, allowing you to switch between different display modes:
| Nominal Orientation This is the default frame display based on only the pixel size on the ground, the center of the frame, and the aircraft heading at the time of capture. This is approximate data, especially for analog flights. | Imatge
 |
| Rectified flight frame If detailed orientation data is available, on-the-fly frame correction is enabled based on a terrain elevation model to provide more accurate metric positioning and better fit with surrounding elements. This detailed orientation is generally available for flights using digital cameras, but is sporadic for flights using analog cameras. | Imatge
 |
| Anaglyph flight frame If detailed orientation data is available, the anaglyph stereo view is enabled to allow this type of stereoscopic view. The viewer constructs the anaglyph by adjusting the parallax to the center point of the frame. This detailed orientation is generally available on flights with digital cameras (as of 2005), but is sporadic on flights with analog cameras. | Imatge
 |
Anaglyph frame of the flight (Castellfollit de la Roca detail)
In addition to the Web Photo Library viewer, QGIS users can consult the Photo Library catalogue through the ICGC Open QGIS plugin.
The ICGC has more aerial photographs that are still in the process of digitization or orientation and that will be made available to all users as they become available. However, if you need a photograph from a period that is not available in the Web Photo Library, do not hesitate to contact the Photo Library service of the User Support Center.