Praza da Quintana after dark

The Quintana is the square behind the cathedral, and it is the emptiest large space in the old town: bare granite, a broad flight of steps across the middle dividing the Quintana dos Vivos from the Quintana dos Mortos, the Holy Door in the cathedral wall, and along the whole opposite side the flat, windowless facade of the San Paio de Antealtares monastery.

That emptiness is what makes it work. There is nothing to compose around except people and geometry: two figures on the steps, a long shadow, a wall of stone. During the day it is one of the busiest squares in Galicia; at night it usually belongs to whoever is standing in it.

The lighting is unusually good. Floodlights at ground level throw enormous shadows up the monastery wall, and on the cathedral side there is the shadow local people call the pilgrim — a shape cast by the buttresses and lamps that reads as a hooded figure with a staff. Photographically it is a gift: strong shapes, warm stone, no daylight balancing problem.

Everything here is free and open at every hour. Rain is the constant — after a shower the granite mirrors the floodlights and the square doubles, which is worth waiting for rather than avoiding. Around a Holy Year, and any evening a large pilgrimage arrives, the square fills up again well after dark; sunrise is the reliably empty alternative.