The article is devoted to the representation and perception by the Spaniards of the events of the War of 1808-1814, which became an important part of the national identity in the XIX century. On the example of commemorative practices of contemporary Spain - ways to mobilize the memory about the war, the author shows how the interpretation of these events has deformed and changed. The article outlines the features of the celebration of the 200-th anniversary of the beginning of the War, the main historical images that accompanied the celebration. The politics of memory, the ways of organizing a holiday that translates and defines the unified system of values, illustrate the problems that contemporary Spain, traumatized by franquismo and embarked upon the path of democratization, faces.