Pamplona

Pamplona

Pamplona has been the capital of Navarre (Navarra) in northern Spain since the ninth century and is believed to have been founded by the Roman general, Pompey.

Ernest Hemingway put Pamplona and its 'fiesta' firmly on the map when he published his book The Sun Also Rises. At midday on 6 July the fiesta gets going with a bang as a rocket explodes outside the town hall, and the crowd tie their red handkerchiefs around their necks, singing and shouting 'Viva San Fermin!' On the last night, 14 July, the party comes to an end with crowds of people holding candles and singing Basque songs in the main square.

The eight-day fiesta of San Fermin is a week of non-stop riotous parties, fireworks, parades, music, dancing and, at 8.00 am each day, the encierro (running of the bulls). Six bulls are released to run through the old town's cobbled streets, on their way to the bull-ring for the evening's bull-fight. Every day, too, men take the opportunity to run through the streets with the bulls, risking injury, even death.

If this sounds too dangerous for you, Pamplona also has Spain's best medieval military architecture in the form of the star-shaped citadel and city walls that Philip II had built in order to defend against the depredations of the French.