Plaza de Toros

The run

Each morning the bulls run from a corral to the ring

During the festival, the bulls are released from their corral at Calle de Santo Domingo. They run along a barricaded route through the streets of the old quarter to the bullring at the Plaza de Toros. A large group of runners tries to beat them there. The first run is on 7 July.

The benediction

Before the run, the runners sing to Saint Fermin for protection

The encierro begins with runners singing a benediction. It is sung three times, each time in Spanish and in Basque, at a statue of Saint Fermin, patron of the festival and the city. The singers finish by shouting, Long live Saint Fermin. Most runners wear a white shirt and trousers with a red waistband and neckerchief.

The fence

A fence of about three thousand pieces of wood shapes the route

Wooden fences direct the bulls along the route and block off the side streets. Where a street is narrow, the buildings act as barriers. The gaps are wide enough for a human to slip through but narrow enough to block a bull. The fence is made of approximately three thousand separate pieces of wood.

The ring

Built in 1922, the ring holds 19,720 people and ends every run

The Plaza de Toros was built in 1922 by Francisco Urcola and holds 19,720 people. The run began as the old practice of moving bulls from the fields to the bullring, where they would be fought and killed in the evening. Along the way, local youths would jump among them in a display of bravado.

19,720People the ring holds

The camp

In 1939 the ring held a Francoist camp for Republican prisoners

During the first months of 1939, towards the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Plaza de Toros housed a Francoist concentration camp. It had a capacity of 3,000 Republican prisoners. The ring that ends the morning run was, for those months, a place where prisoners were held.