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Next: about 18 Oct 2026

Fiesta de la Trashumancia

Once a year, shepherds lead their flocks through central Madrid along the old royal drove road, a reminder of the right of way.

Main drove roads in Spain: Cañadas reales of the Castilian Crown Cañadas reales of the Navarran Kingdom Cabañeras of the Aragonese Kingdom Carrerades Cataluña
Photo: Diotime, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Cattle at Fiesta de la Trashumancia

Spain's cañadas reales, the royal drove roads, were laid down in the Middle Ages for livestock moving between summer pastures in the north and winter grazing in the south, and some still run through Madrid. Since 1994 a festival each autumn has asserted the herders' right of way: a flock of merino sheep and goats walks through the city centre, and the shepherds pay the mayor a symbolic toll set by an agreement of the thirteenth century. The flock in Madrid is of sheep, but the same drove roads carried cattle, and in the mountains of Ávila, Cantabria and León some herds of native cattle still walk to their summer pastures.

Also part of it, and being written: Tudanca cattle (The Cantabrian breed that still walks to the summer pastures.), Sayaguesa (A black cattle breed of the Zamora borderlands.), Alistana-Sanabresa (The mountain cattle of the León and Zamora uplands.).

About this page

Written by the EveryCow desk with AI assistance. Background: "Mesta" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

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