It may be different in the resorts I realise, but cafe-bars in Spanish towns and cities, normally close one day a week "por descanso". Does anyone know if this is a legal thing, or just something done out of habit?

there can't be a legal requirement around here - lots of the bars are open 7 days a week, especially in the summer

most cut their hours/days off season though

I'm pretty sure there can't be seasonal rule changes either

No - it is not a legal requirement.

Well there you go Stevie.
These hard working guys definitely need their "descanso".

thats funny, we have bars here that shut for one day, mostly on a Monday after a busy weekend, but there seems to be some code to this as one has Wednesday shut.
however, during the Verano some have been shut all the time, and I don't mean just a week, but more like 6-8 weeks.

we have 3 near the centre of the village, one ceased opening at lunch time reverting to Wed-Sun evenings only. Another opens at 1pm, the other shuts at 2. But on a Sunday lunchtime we haven't got a single one open.

But there are others, just not in that area.

my 'regular' bar only opens Monday to Friday all year round - it's off the tourist track so it makes no sense to open weekends - the weekday customers are mainly from nearby shops, offices, the salud & the instituto, groups of mums after dropping the kids off at school (& sometimes after picking them up again as well ) & various groups who use the nearby sports centre, a group which meets for a quiz night, & another which uses the place for playing board games - oh & my 11 groups of people learning Spanish

they have in the past opened Saturdays & at one time Sundays as well, but financially it makes more sense to close on those (pretty much dead) days, rather than either work themselves into an early grave or pay someone else to work for them

Well yes, it comes as a shock to many visitors to London, to find a lot of pubs in the City area close at weekends..

In Madrid it tends to be the pattern that seafood bars close on Mondays, and others chose either Sunday or Saturday to rest.
It also used to be the case that everyone shut up shop for the whole of August, but apparently a lot of places now stay open during that month.

that is what we are finding so "complicated" about Spanish life
you are in the middle of a crisis, you have to keep paying your bills (ok not too much if the bar used to be your living room) but your autonomo is still a chunk, and yet you close down for a month. The very month(s) that other people are taking as a holiday, the very month(s) when people are renting houses and flats and coming from abroad.
And you shut up shop

many are small local bars, husband and wife doing everything, yes they need a holiday. Everyone does.
Fruteria in the village closed for two and a half weeks, the half being for cleaning the place out before going off for a fortnight.
But even a fruteria in the middle of Granada shut up for a 10 day stint, spending the first 2-3 days cleaning and painting before dropping the shutters.

but its like closing because it is a saints day, there are more people about on those days, but everywhere, including bars are shut.

Well in Madrid and the cities, they closed because there were no customers! Everyone in work had decamped to the family home in the campo or on the coast for August. A bit like the City pubs in London that close at weekends. Traditionally there were no customers so best to shut up shop and save on running costs.
It is changing a bit in Madrid, I don't know about other cities.

In the two years we had our place in Jimena we might just as well have closed for August. Some of the other village bars/restaurants do.

It's not a legal thing, they just need a day off!

Only one bar in our village is open on Sundays.

Most UK pubs only close on Christmas Day, and lots are just a one man band outfit, they manage OK. Spanish friend of mine was amazed when I told him most never close one day a week.

Don't think so.
Christmas Day is one day when they are guaranteed to make a killing often with two sittings for expensive Christmas Lunches which have often been booked weeks or even months in advance.

Monday is the day off for almost all businesses in my area of Spain. The local pueblo is like a ghost town though a couple of supermarkets open up later on.
Quite a few also close on Sundays or maybe whenever else they feel the need for a descanso.

My area of Spain is a working class one and the many expats living here are mostly retired working class people from the UK. Over the past five years around half the bars have been closed permanently, the survivors are open seven days a week.

One local bar has a sign in the windows 'closed for holidays'. It has been up for five years.