In streets like these, narrow enough to shout across from one facade to the other, the city fought that day with sewing supplies, because hardly anyone had weapons. A citizen of Madrid might have had a , a folding knife, in his pocket at best, and everyone else grabbed whatever was at hand: stones, scissors, needles, boiling water and flowerpots hurled down from the balconies, which worked out better than it sounds.
What belongs to the story is that the Spanish army stayed in its barracks that day, because Captain General had ordered his troops to keep out of it, and with one exception everyone obeyed. Ordinary people defended their own street while a few hundred metres away professional soldiers sat on their hands, their weapons within easy reach.
Above you hang those same narrow balconies, now fitted with window boxes and air conditioning units.
We keep following the Calle de la Montera until it opens onto the Gran Vía.
Sources. Story: Hispanopedia, Levantamiento del 2 de Mayo; Juan Pérez de Guzmán, El dos de Mayo de 1808 en Madrid, 1908. Photos: Tomás López Enguídanos, print of the second of May 1808, 1813, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
