First hour away from our hotel we ran into this military parade. Not sure what it means but it was impressive. First pictures taken in the Calle de Carretas, near de Plaza del Sol.


From "andkoppel":
If I have my history right, we are celebrating the "Dos de Mayo" -May the second- date that people of Madrid took arms against the French occupation. It was a blood bath that ended with hundreds of Madrileños facing the firing squad. You can see a great painting by Goya at El Prado remembering the massacre. It is believed that this uprising was the very beginin of the end of Napoleon's empire.

Hello!! I'm writing from Barcelona, Spain.

The green soldiers are the "Guardia Civil" Civil guard, its a military police troop to protect and serve the people and the blue and red police are the urban police from Madrid. These are their gala uniform.

In the catalogue from the Prado I found a painting: "The third of May 1808: The execution of the Defenders of Madrid" from Goya, which might be the one you are referring to. What stikes me of course is that it the third and not the second of May.
After people from Madrid took arms against Frenchs, the second of May, people that were discovered carrying arms were executed. 45 "revolutionarys" were executed together in Principe Pio's hill at night, between second and third of May. This is the painting that you saw.

Are you sure "Dos de Mayo" square is where 1808 uprising begun? I don't think so.

I were quite sure it was Andrés Torrejón, from Mostoles (a little town beside Madrid, where he was the major) who is considered to begin uprising, although this is also a too much romantic story, and real history could be a less dramatic tale:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bando_de_los_alcaldes_de_M%C3%B3stoles

Nevertheless, Madrid was dominated these days by French troupes, and Madrid resistance was shutted up by the force


Hi there

I had to come out of the woodwork with such comments! (I've been a back seat viewer for years).I live 200 meters from the "Plaza Dos de Mayo" which indeed is the plaza where on the 2nd of May, the Spanish started the uprising against Napoleon's amry.

I take my kids there to play on the swings and try out my K10D which usually lives with the samsung 50-200mm (imported as Madrid is almost dry when it comes to pentax compatible gear).

These days it is a bank holiday in Madrid and up until a couple of years ago the plaza enjoyed a couple of days of festival. The town hall then withdrew permission thanks to too many youths getting drunk in the square. This year the youths took to the streets in protest and caused some pretty terrible riots. I was actually in Valencia (home of the Americ's Cup 2007 this year) when my family saw riot police running down our stret on the news!!
Puts things in perspective!

In short, both events took place around the same time. The barracks of Monteleón were where the current "Dos de Mayo" square exists and that is where the only spanish troops stationed in Madrid disobayed orders not to leave their station and joined the citizens of the city in fighting the french occupation.