A trip planned around a Spanish public holiday can miss it entirely, because two of Madrid’s holidays are not on the date their name suggests and two more move with Easter.
Fourteen days a year are marked in the city, and they come from two different administrations under three different rules. Knowing which kind you are dealing with decides whether the calendar you checked at home is the right one. The Comunidad de Madrid sets 12 of the fourteen and Madrid City Council the other 2, which are 15 May for San Isidro Labrador and 9 November for La Almudena.
How many public holidays does Madrid have and who sets them? Madrid has 14 public holidays a year. The Comunidad de Madrid sets 12 that apply across the region and Madrid City Council sets 2 local ones, 15 May for San Isidro Labrador and 9 November for La Almudena. Two of the twelve regional days are shifted off their nominal date.
What actually opens on a holiday in Madrid
Each service publishes its own rule for the fourteen days, and no two of them agree, because each answers to a different body, as mapped in who sets Madrid’s opening hours:
| Service | On a public holiday |
|---|---|
| Hayedo de Montejo centre | Closed on working Mondays, so a holiday Monday opens |
| Faro de Moncloa | Closed Mondays except on holidays the council lists |
| State museums | Open, but free entry is not triggered by a holiday |
| El Rastro | Trades 9:00 to 15:00, exactly as on a Sunday |
| Metro de Madrid | Unchanged, 6:00 to 1:30, every day of the year |
El Rastro is the most useful of the five to remember, because its municipal authorisation covers Sundays and public holidays equally, which turns a midweek holiday into a full market day. The detail is in when El Rastro is open.
The state museums run the opposite way. Their free hours start at 14:00 on Saturday and all day Sunday, plus 18 May and 12 October, and a holiday on any other date does not activate them, as set out in the eight museums at 3 €.
Fourteen days, and two of them belong to the city alone
It is the Comunidad that approves 12 holidays for the entire region each year, and every town hall adds 2 valid only within its own municipality. That split is why a local holiday in Alcalá de Henares is an ordinary Tuesday in the capital.
The two local days that the Council sets for the city of Madrid are 15 May, San Isidro Labrador, and 9 November, La Almudena. Neither appears on a national or regional calendar, and both are fixed dates rather than movable ones, so they land on a different weekday each year without ever changing date.
La Almudena is the feast of the city’s patron, whose cathedral stands beside the Royal Palace and belongs to the Archdiocese rather than to the council or to Patrimonio Nacional, which is why the building charges its own admission. San Isidro, on 15 May, keeps its date every year even though its programme of events does not, so it is the one date a May trip can plan around.
Fixed, movable and transferred, as 2026 shows
Three mechanisms produce the fourteen dates that the Comunidad publishes, and they behave differently from year to year:
- Fixed-date holidays that never move, such as 1 January, 1 May, 15 August, 12 October, 8 December and 25 December.
- Movable holidays tied to Easter. In 2026 these fall on 2 April and 3 April, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and they shift by several weeks between years.
- Transferred holidays, which are fixed dates pushed to the following Monday when they land on a Sunday. In 2026 All Saints moves to 2 November and Constitution Day to 7 December.
The transfer rule has an asymmetry worth knowing. It applies to Sundays only, so a holiday landing on a Saturday, as 2 May does in 2026, produces no extra day off at all. That leaves the region with 12 marked dates but fewer than 12 days of closure in some years.
The word that decides it is “working”
Several places close not on Mondays but on working Mondays, and that adjective flips the outcome. The environmental education centre at the Hayedo de Montejo works this way, so a Monday that happens to be a holiday is a Monday the centre opens, as described in how to book the beech forest walk.
The Faro de Moncloa uses a variant of the same wording: shut on Mondays except for certain holidays the council lists, with separate hours on 24 and 25 December and on 31 December and 1 January. Those conditions are in the observation deck’s rules.
Transport allows no ambiguity at all, and it is the only one of the five with a single timetable for all 365 days. The metro runs 6:00 to 1:30 every day of the year, with no holiday extension and no weekend one either, which matters most on the night of a holiday, covered in what runs when the metro shuts.
Frequently asked questions about public holidays in Madrid
How many public holidays does Madrid have?
Fourteen a year. Twelve are set by the Comunidad de Madrid for the whole region and two are chosen by each town hall, which in the city of Madrid means 15 May for San Isidro and 9 November for La Almudena.
Do shops and attractions close on Spanish public holidays in Madrid?
Not uniformly. The metro keeps its 6:00 to 1:30 timetable every day of the year and El Rastro trades from 9:00 to 15:00 on holidays exactly as on Sundays, while the state museums open without applying their free-entry hours.
Why is Constitution Day celebrated on 7 December some years?
Because when a fixed-date holiday falls on a Sunday, the Comunidad de Madrid moves it to the following Monday. All Saints does the same, shifting from 1 November to 2 November in those years.
Are Madrid’s local holidays the same in nearby towns?
No. Only twelve of the fourteen are regional. The other two are chosen municipality by municipality, so a local holiday in Alcalá de Henares or Aranjuez is an ordinary working day in the city of Madrid.
Does a public holiday falling on Saturday get moved?
No. The transfer rule applies to holidays that fall on a Sunday, not on a Saturday. A Saturday holiday such as 2 May in some years simply produces no additional day off.
Fourteen marked days, two administrations that share them out and five services that read them five different ways.