El Rastro Flea Market

La Latina around the Plaza de Cascorro and C/ Embajadores
Madrid
Madrid
Spain

Type: Market/Bazaar
Hours: Sunday 9:00 am - 2:00 pm

Comments ( 0 )
Rating (0 Votes)

It’s Sunday evening and all across Madrid thrifty shoppers can be heard proclaiming, “You just wouldn’t believe what a deal I found at the Rastro today!” El Rastro flea market, located in La Latina around the Plaza de Cascorro and C/ Embajadores, has been a Madrid institution for as long as anyone cares to remember. Every Sunday from 9 am to 2 pm, throngs of people eagerly sift through stalls full of coverless books, sink fixtures, worn furniture and ragged clothes in search of treasures. The affair is organized chaos, with the cheaper goods on the main street giving way to various thematically organized spaces on the side streets. It may seem like a whole lot of junk, but just keep digging. In my own hunt, I ran into a retired American couple that couldn’t help but comment on my John Belushi shirt (hey, it was Sunday). While the wife examined a piece of what looked vaguely like crystal, her husband explained that in New Jersey, where they lived, they rented out a stall at a local antique mall. Each year they came to Madrid just for the Rastro and, with a wink, he explained that each year they returned home with “a couple, three things and turn a sizable profit.” All I had to show for my efforts was a cheap umbrella, the purchase of which had been long overdue. “That’s our excuse, anyway,” the wife said. Who knows how many priceless works of art have lingered in the dusty attics of Spain until one day they showed up in the Rastro and unceremoniously exchanged hands with someone “in the know.” But way back in the 19th century a number of priceless Goyas were stolen from the Prado Museum and some have yet to resurface. One day, just maybe....