Nostalgia has become one of the great engines of the internet. More and more users are looking for old images of their neighborhoods, before and after comparisons or historical photographs of their municipalities. In this context, a video published on TikTok by profile “avant-garde” has triggered interest in a website that allows you to travel up to 70 years ago to see what any point in Spain was like.
The video, which has accumulated thousands of views, shows in a simple way how to access this digital tool. The key is to search on Google for the following link: geamap.com/es/ortofoto-espana. Upon entering, the user finds an interactive map of Spain similar to other current cartographic services, but with a fundamental difference: it allows consulting historical orthophotos.
The possibility of observing urban evolution, the growth of cities or changes in the rural landscape has aroused the curiosity of many Internet users. It is not only a useful tool for researchers or urban planning professionals, but also an attractive resource for those who want to rediscover the past of their closest environment.
How to travel to the past from the map
The operation is simple. Once inside the website, a general map of the Spanish territory appears. To go back in time, click on the layers symbol located at the top right of the screen. When you click, a menu is displayed where you can select different available years.
The user can choose the period that interests them—in some cases up to 70 years ago—and navigate to the specific location they want to consult. In this way, it is possible to check what the streets were like before urban expansion, locate old waste fields that are now buildings or discover railway routes and roads that have already disappeared.
The experience is especially striking in municipalities that have experienced accelerated growth in recent decades. Urbanizations, industrial estates and new infrastructure appear where before there was only countryside or small scattered buildings.
A tool with historical and social value
Beyond the viral component, this website has obvious documentary interest. Historical orthophotos allow us to analyze the transformation of the territory, the impact of human activity and changes in land use. For architects, historians or students, it can become a very valuable reference resource.
But its recent success seems to be more linked to the emotional factor. Many users share screenshots comparing the “then” and “now” of their neighborhood, or showing what their grandparents’ town was like decades ago. On social networks, these contents generate conversation and awaken family memories.
The phenomenon demonstrates, once again, the power of TikTok to rescue digital tools and turn them into a trend. What for some was a little-known page, has now become one of the websites that more and more people visit to look into the past and see, with their own eyes, how their environment has changed in the last 70 years.