Free audio walk in Madrid
The Second of May, 1808
- 97 min
- 4.7 km
- 13 stops
- Free
Starts at Puerta del Sol
About this walk
The day Madrid rose up against Napoleon's army with knives, stones and flowerpots, followed hour by hour.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
Welcome to the Second of May
The morning Madrid rose up, told from the square where the fighting was fiercest.
- 2Stop 2
The Charge of the Mamelukes
What Goya painted six years later happened right here: the imperial cavalry against an unarmed crowd.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
Real Casa de Correos
The only building on this square that witnessed the second of May, and the decree that was signed that afternoon.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
Fighting with Whatever Was at Hand
A city that fought with scissors, stones and flowerpots, while its own army stayed in the barracks.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
The streets that are gone
This is where the neighbourhood bands came together, and a century later a stretch of the battlefield vanished beneath a new street.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
Plaza de San Ildefonso
The square of a neighbourhood that renamed itself after a single day, street by street.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
Museo de Historia de Madrid
A former almshouse with the most exuberant Baroque doorway in Spain, now home to the city museum. Free entry.
Read the story - 8Stop 8
The Gate of Monteleón
The one barracks where there actually was fighting that day, and the two officers who set their orders aside.
Read the story - 9Stop 9
Manuela Malasaña
The seventeen-year-old embroiderer who gave her name to an entire neighbourhood, and what really happened to her.
Read the story - 10Stop 10
The wide street
The wide street the columns marched down, and the night Madrid fell under martial law.
Read the story - 11Stop 11
The Night of the Executions
The executions that night on a hill to the west, and the painting that shapes how we picture it.
Read the story - 12Stop 12
Iglesia de la Buena Dicha
The charity hospital where the wounded were carried, with the little graveyard behind it where Manuela Malasaña lies. Inside, a second story waits for you.
Read the story - 13Stop 13
The news that rode out of the city
How the news rode out of the city and sparked a war that lasted six years, with the way back to the Puerta del Sol.
Read the story
Ready when you are
Walk The Second of May, 1808 with ROODS.
13 stops through Madrid, about 97 minutes. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
