Madrid — The streets of Madrid are lively now, with locals lounging at cafes by day, roving from one tapas bar to another at night. The trees are in spring bloom, and the shops full of enticing goods. But in spring 1808, Madrid was the scene of one of the most horrifying and bloody events of the 19th century: the uprising of May 2-3 that started the 1808-1814 Spanish War of Independence.

The Madrilenos are celebrating that 200th anniversary with gusto: parades and costumed processions, street music and formal concerts. To commemorate those historic times, the venerable Prado Museum has gathered almost 200 works by Francisco de Goya, one of Spain's greatest artists, in a huge exhibition called "Goya in Times of War."

Joan Scobey / Special (ENLARGE)

Chinchon's Church of the Assumption overlooks the Plaza Mayor, the main square, which is used for bullfights during the summer when people watch from the balconied buildings.

Joan Scobey / Special (ENLARGE)

Goya liked bullfights and painted them often.

Special (ENLARGE)

Portrait of Amalia, daughter of the Marchioness of Montehermoso, by Francisco Goya.

RELATED LINKS: • Photos of Goya's art • Int'l travel info and tourism offices • The ultimate travel guide • More international travel ideas

The spark that ignited the uprising occurred on May 2, 1808, when Napoleon's troops, already occupying Madrid, sent the Spanish royal family off to France. Enraged Madrilenos gathered at the Royal Palace in protest, the French forces fired on them, and the rebellion spread throughout city, with citizens fighting hand to hand through the streets.

The French quickly won control of the city, and the next day, vowing to teach the Madrilenos a lesson, they rounded up hundreds of insurgents for mass executions. It was a brutal and appalling retaliation.

Like a wartime photographer using paint instead of film, Goya recorded the events of those two days in two large masterpieces: "The Second of May in Madrid," depicting the insurrection in the Puerto del Sol, and "The Third of May in Madrid," capturing the French firing squad and the horrific executions.

It isn't clear if Goya witnessed the events, but they clearly made a lasting impression on him. When the French were finally driven out of Spain in 1814, Goya asked permission from the provisional government to paint, as he said, "the heroic actions of our glorious insurrection against the Tyrant of Europe."

The two paintings, completed in several months in 1814 and just recently restored, are now the centerpieces of the Prado show, which covers the last 25 years of Goya's life and spotlights the extraordinary range of his work. Here you'll see engravings, drawings, prints, pictures of everyday life, portraits of aristocracy, and tapestry cartoons as well as themes that range from the Inquisition and madness to post-war famine and bullfighting.

The show runs to July 13, but if you don't get there in time, the two canvases, and many other significant works are part of the Prado's permanent collection, and a number of others will return to their permanent Madrid homes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the National Library, the Royal Palace, the Liria Palace, and the Lázaro Galdiano Museum. You won't miss many Goyas, just the extraordinary impact of the complete show.

GOYA CONNECTIONS

1. The Prado Museum has the world's largest collections of Goya and Velázquez, the foremost collection of Spanish paintings, among them masterpieces by El Greco, Murillo, Ribera, Zurbarán, plus superb 16th- to 18th-century Italian masterpieces and a wealth of Flemish and Dutch works. The collections are enormous: 8,600 paintings, an equal number of prints and drawings and more than 1,000 sculptures.

2. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which rejected Goya twice before it accepted him as a member, today has a number of major Goya paintings displayed in special Goya rooms.

3. Goya loved bullfights, but Las Ventas, Madrid's bullring, was after his time. The season is March to October and kicks off in earnest in May with the Fiesta of San Isidro. Part spectacle, part sport, sometimes likened to opera, the corrida is at the heart of Spanish culture, a ritual tragedy as man tries to control beast (and sometimes fails). The band proclaims the start of the drama when three matadors meet six bulls. To paso doble marching music, the colorful procession of players circles the bull ring: first the matadors, then the picadors on horseback, the banderilleros, the cadre of assistants and, finally, the trio of horses that will pull the vanquished bull out of the ring.

4. Bullfights and Goya come together in Chinchon, a delightful small town an hour's drive southeast of Madrid. You'll arrive first at a ruined 14th-century castle overlooking the hilly town, which is banked around the main square like an amphitheater. This Plaza Mayor doubles as a bullring in July and August, as well as an open-air stage for theatrical productions and concerts. The balconies on the surrounding houses offer prime seats for all the spectacles, and, out of season, shelter cafe tables for people watching. Goya's brother was a priest at the Church of the Assumption, for which he painted an Assumption of the Virgin. If you're in luck, the church, which overlooks the main square, will be open.

5. Crowds mob El Rastro, the city's famous centuries-old flea market every Sunday from 7 a.m. when the stalls set up until they close at 2 in the afternoon. Along Ribera de Curtidores between Ronda de Toledo and Plaza de Cascorro there are goods to please all fancies — fans and leather, ruffled aprons and cheap, satiny shawls, Real Madrid caps and T-shirts, antiques and posters. To find a Goya look-alike, or, as a Rastro sign puts it, "Autentico Falso," go to Pintores Artisticos, Ribera de Curtidores 15, about halfway along the main drag. Two bullfight paintings a la Goya, for instance, each 8-by-5.5 inches, are 318 euros (about $500).

6. Claimed to be the world's oldest restaurant, Botin, built in 1725, also boasts a Goya connection: a George-Washington-slept-here-style teaser that Goya waited tables here. Four floors of wood-beamed dining rooms are filled with tourists and Spaniards, too, who appreciate that the restaurant maintains its culinary standards. The three-course house menu features gazpacho, the roast suckling pig specialty, ice cream and wine for 29.50 euros (about $46). After dinner stroll up to the nearby Plaza Mayor, Madrid's great Baroque square.

7. The Royal Tapestry Factory was founded by King Philip in 1721 to weave for the royal houses of Spain. Goya drew more than 60 designs or "cartoons" for the factory, mostly hunting scenes and colorful customs, that the workshop copied into large wall hangings for El Pardo Palace and the royal Bourbon apartments in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The artisans take four months to produce about 1 square yard, and still work from Goya's cartoons. Weavings are for sale.

8. In the mid-16th century Philip II built the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial as a grand mausoleum for his father, Charles I. The vast complex, 29 miles northwest of Madrid, is now a World Heritage Site, best known for its monumental basilica and the marble Pantheon where most of Spain's rulers are buried. In contrast, the more intimate royal apartments on the top floor, called the Palace of the Bourbons, house a marvelous collection of tapestries, 40 of them by Goya, among them hunting and fishing scenes. Not far away in a forest with wild boar and deer is El Pardo Palace, built as a 15th-century hunting lodge, enlarged by the Bourbons, and later the official residence of Gen. Francisco Franco, whose bedroom and bathroom are on view. Goya designed several series of tapestries for the palace, the most famous of which are the four seasons in the dining room.

9. Madrid has more than its share of small collections in their owners' homes, and for Goyas, Liria Palace and the Lázaro Galdiano Museum are two exquisite examples. Publisher Galdiano's Italianate palazzo displays his eclectic collection of jewels, metalwork, Dutch and English paintings, a splendid Hieronymus Bosch and seven Goyas, among them "The Penitent Magdalena" and "San Hermenegildo in Prison." The 18th-century Liria Palace, the Duchess of Alba's city center retreat, is a treasure of masterworks, foremost among them Goya's glorious portrait of the 13th Duchess of Alba, currently in the Prado show. It will return when the exhibit closes in July. Meanwhile the slack is taken up by Titian, Fra Angelico, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velázquez and El Greco, plus exquisite tapestries and porcelains. The first Bible in Spanish, dated 1422, is also here.

10. Several churches have Goya connections, among them San Antonio de los Alemanes and San Francisco el Grande, but if you only see one, make it San Antonio de la Florida for its wonderful frescoes of scenes of daily city life and the miracles of St. Anthony. The church was turned into a museum, and a replica for worship built across the street. This is also where Goya is buried, making it a fine place to end a tour of Goya's Madrid and pay your respects to the master.

Scobey has written about travel and food in Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, India, the Mideast, South America, Australia, the Pacific and North America.