Feria del Campo (Campo Fair) in Madrid, Spain
During the government of General Franco, pavilions and facilities began to be built in 1950 in order to hold a monographic contest on the Spanish countryside. Those pavilions of the different Spanish provinces, which were built with great care and they were the pride of that regime, today they are reconverted in restaurants or simply, they are abandoned.
The Feria del Campo (Campo Fair) was a biannual exhibition and international event that began in the 1950s and continued through the early 1970s. It was held at the Casa de Campo, a big park located in the west of Madrid.
It was a contest attended by the different Spanish provinces and some American countries, bringing samples of the best of the livestock, agricultural products, ceramics, and more. The latest agricultural innovations were intermingled with traditional implements in the different provincial pavilions. All this was complemented with livestock competitions where you could see the best specimens of the different breeds of cattle and sheep, dances and regional music, and the tasting of the typical products of each province or region. Each pavilion was staffed by representatives dressed in the traditional costumes of their regions.
With the end of General Franco’s regime, the end of the Feria del Campo also arrived, dropping into oblivion and maintenance the great majority of the existing pavilions, except for some of them converted into restaurants, others abandoned and even destroyed. Nowadays, only a few pavilions survive like restaurants.
