Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Feb 27, 2008 - 09:44 AM Holidays

May 2nd is one of Madrid's public holidays, commemorating the Dos de Mayo Uprising against the French of 1808 and the beginning of the Spanish War of Independence. It's always a good time to visit Madrid, as hundreds of thousands of Madrileños take advantage of the long weekend and head for the costas or sierras (May 1st is a national holiday as well, so in Madrid this break is almost as important as Easter), leaving the city relatively uncrowded (but not as closed up as in August), at a time of year when Madrid's weather is usually at its best. This year is the bicentenary of the uprising, and looks like being a celebration to remember. Special attention is being paid to the field of art, and an exhibition programmed in the Prado Museum of Goya in Times of War looks likely to attract attention. His two masterpieces related with the event are being especially restored, these being the Dos de Mayo, 1808, and the even more famous Tres de Mayo, 1808, otherwise known as The Charge of the Marmelukes and the Executions on Principe Pío Mountain, respectively. If you are not a Goya fan, there will be other events and, more importantly, I think there should be a general festive feel to the city that weekend. Read more.

Exact programme details for theatre and concerts are not yet forthcoming, at least on the Net. But the web page of the Fundación Dos de Mayo (which has the horribly nationalistic sounding slogan "Nación y Libertad," which sounds more appropriate for somewhere in the Balkans than a Western European country) promises various exhibitions; historical recreations of the Battle of Somosierra and the Mutiny of Aranjuez; a play called Puerta del Sol based on National Episodes (a classic by nineteenth-century Spanish novelist Benito Pérez Galdós); a number of concerts including an Anthology of the Zarzuela, the Spanish version of operetta, and various religious works; a ballet; and a Dos-de-Mayo-related film festival.

Much of all this will only be of interest to very fluent Spanish speakers, but, as I say, I expect there to be a party atmosphere in Madrid for the long weekend May 1st-May 4th. At the very least, there will be natives dressed as chulos and chulas, majos and majas, dancing Madrid's traditional dance, the chotis, to the the sound of the barrel organ. And Madrid knows how to party like nowhere else, so if you're looking for a city break for that weekend, it's a natural choice.