Pamplona – the city of the bulls

20 Feb, 2023

Monday, 20th of February:

Yesterday I made a really nice excursion with my host-aunt to Pamplona. Pamplona is the capital of Navarra and with its 200000 inhabitants it’s a little bit larger than Logroño. Right after we had started our tour through the beautiful old town I noticed what is the most important thing for the people there: The bulls (Spanish: „toros“) and the festival of „San Fermín“.

„San Fermín“ is for Pamplona what the „Oktoberfest“ is for Munich. Every year from 6th to 14th of July about one million people come to this festival, weich is famous in the whole world. The highlight of „San Fermín“ is the daily bull race that is broadcasted live in the Spanish TV, in Spanish called „Encierro“. First the participants sing a special song three times, then begins the „Encierro“. At 8 a.m. six 700kg bulls run together with some smaller ones with a speed of about 30km/h a distance of 875m through the old town into the bullring, the „Plaza de Toros“. And during the race lots of brave people try to run in front of and next to the bulls. If you haven’t ever seen this, I really recommend you to watch some videos of this dangerous spectacle. Unfortunately, it has to be considered as well that all bulls get killed in bullfights later and that in total 16 people have died during the bull races.

Jonathan

This clock shows the countdown to the next festival of „San Fermín“:

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The song the participants sing:

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The „Plaza de Toros“:

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This is the famous street where the people are on balcons to watch the „Encierro“:

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