San Sebastián is a coastal city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, 20 km (12 miles) from the French border.
The main economic activities are almost entirely service-based, with an emphasis on commerce and tourism, as it is one of the most historically famous tourist destinations in Spain. Despite the city’s small size, events such as the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the San Sebastian Jazz Festival have given it an international dimension. San Sebastián, along with Wrocław, Poland, was the European Capital of Culture in 2016.
Parte Vieja / Parte Zaharra
The Parte Vieja (Spanish) or Parte Zaharra (Basque) — Old Town – is the traditional core area of the city, and was surrounded by walls up to 1863, when they were demolished so as to occupy the stretch of sand and land that connected the town to the mainland (a stretch of the walls still limits the Old Part on its exit to the port through the Portaletas gate). The Old Town is divided in two parishes relating to the Santa Maria and San Vicente churches, the inhabitants belonging to the former being dubbed traditionally joxemaritarrak, while those attached to the latter are referred to as koxkeroak. Historically, the koxkeroak up to the early 18th century were largely Gascon speaking inhabitants. Especially after the end of Franco’s dictatorship, scores of bars sprang up all over the Old Part. Most current buildings trace back to the 19th century, erected thanks to the concerted effort and determination of the town dwellers after the 1813 destruction of the town by the allied Anglo-Portuguese troops.
There is a small fishing and recreation port, with two-floor houses lined under the front-wall of the mount Urgull. Yet these houses are relatively new, resulting from the demilitarization of the hill, sold to the city council by the Ministry of War in 1924.
Antiguo
This part stands at the west side of the city beyond the Miramar Palace. It is arguably the first population nucleus, even before the land at the foot of Urgull (Old Part) was settled. A monastery of San Sebastián el Antiguo (‘the Old’) is attested in documents at the time of the foundation (12th century). At the mid 19th century, industry developed (Cervezas El León, Suchard, Lizarriturry), the nucleus coming to be populated by workers. Industry has since been replaced by services and the tourist sector. The Matia kalea provides the main axis for the district.
Amara Zaharra
Or Old Amara, named after the farmhouse Amara. It has eventually merged with the city centre to a large extent, since former Amara lay on the marshes at the left of the River Urumea. The core of this district is the Easo plaza, with the railway terminal of Euskotren closing the square at its south.
Amara Berri
This city expansion to the south came about as of the 1940s, after the works to canalize the river were achieved. Nowadays the name Amara usually applies to this sector, the newer district having overshadowed the original nucleus both in size and population. The district harbours the main road entrance to the city. Facilities of many state run agencies were established here and presently Amara’s buildings house many business offices. The district revolves around the axis of Avenida Sancho el Sabio and Avenida de Madrid.
Gros
The district is built on the sandy terrain across the river. The Gros or Zurriola surf beach by the river’s mouth bears witness to that type of soil. In the 19th century, shanties and workshops started to dot the area, Tomas Gros being one of its main proprietors as well as providing the name for this part of the city. The area held the former monumental bullring Chofre demolished in 1973, on a site currently occupied by a housing estate. The district shows a dynamic commercial activity, recently boosted by the presence of the Kursaal Congress Centre by the beach.
Aiete
One of the newest parts in the city, it kept a rural air until not long ago.[13]:60–61 The postwar city council bought the quaint compound of the Aiete Palace for the use of Francisco Franco in 1940, right after the conclusion of the Civil War. The place in turn became the summer residence for the dictator up to 1975. Nowadays home to the Bakearen Etxea or Peace Memorial House.
Egia
Egia, stemming from (H)Egia (Basque for either bank/shore or hill), is a district of Donostia on the right side of the Urumea beyond the train station. At the beginning of the 20th century, a patch of land by the railway started to be used as a football pitch, eventually turning into the official stadium of the local team Real Sociedad before it was transferred in the 1990s to Anoeta, south of Amara Berri (nowadays the site harbours houses). The former tobacco factory building Tabakalera, which has been converted into a Contemporary Culture Centre, conjures up the former industrial past of the area,. Right opposite to this building lies the Cristina Enea park, a public compound with a botanic vocation. Egia holds the city cemetery, Polloe, at the north-east fringes of the district, stretching out to South Intxaurrondo.
Intxaurrondo
This part (meaning ‘walnut tree’ in Basque) is a large district to the east of the city. The original nucleus lies between the railway and the Ategorrieta Avenue, where still today the farmhouse Intxaurrondo Zar, declared “National Monument”, is situated since the mid-17th century. The railway cuts across the district, the southern side being the fruit of the heavy development undergone in the area during the immigration years of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, further housing estates have been built up more recently souther beyond the N-1 E-5 E-80 E-70 ring road (South Intxaurrondo). The police force Guardia Civil runs controversial barracks there (works for new housing are underway).
Altza
Altza (Basque for alder tree) is the easternmost district of San Sebastián along with Bidebieta and Trintxerpe. It was but a quaint village comprising scattered farmhouses and a small nucleus a century ago (2,683 inhabitants in 1910), yet on the arrival of thousands of immigrants in the 1960s and 1970s a rapid and chaotic housing and building activity ensued, resulting in a maze of grey landscape of skyscrapers and 32,531 inhabitants crammed in them (data of 1970), the figure is 20,000 as of 2013.
Ibaeta
Ibaeta stands on the former location for various factories (e.g., Cervezas El León) of San Sebastián, with the buildings of the old industrial estate being demolished in the late 20th century. The levelling of this large flat area paved the ground for a carefully planned modern and elegant housing estate, featuring a new university campus for the public University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) and institutions such as the Donostia International Physics Center or the Nanotechnology Center. A stream called Konporta flows down along the eastern side of the area, but it was canalized under the ground almost all along to its mouth on the bay pushed by urban building pressure.
Loiola
It lies by the Urumea at the south-east end of the city. It comprises a small patch of detached houses (Ciudad Jardín) and a core area of 6-odd floor buildings. The district has recently gone through a major makeover, with works finishing in 2008. The road axis coming from important industrial areas (Astigarraga-Hernani) crosses the district heading downtown. A military base stands across the river, home to an uprising in 1936. Attempts by the city council to close it have been unsuccessful so far.
Riberas de Loiola
New modern district erected in the 2000s next to the city’s inner bypass and south road entrance to Donostia. A pedestrian bridge spans the Urumea river onto the Cristina Enea Park.
Martutene
The Martutene district bordering to the south on the town of Astigarraga comes next to Loiola in the south direction. This part of the city features an industrial area, a football pitch for lower leagues, a disused vocational training building and enclosure as well as a prison, much in decay and due to be transferred soon to a new location, probably in the municipality’s exclave of Zubieta, while this option is coming in for much opposition.
Ulia
This part stands on the east side of the city at the foot of the Mount Ulia Park, on the left hand side of the road heading from Donostia to Pasaia and Irun. It consists of a residential area, besides holding a number of educational institutions, culture and sports centres built since 1980. The Park of Nurseries of Ulia sits at the base of the road leading to Mount Ulia, with its name deriving from its function as a nursery of plants for the public gardens of Donostia during all the 20th century and until 2008. It includes two ancient water-tanks, architectonic elements, and specific flora and fauna.
Añorga
Former area of caserios on the outskirts of San Sebastián, the establishment in 1900 of the Cementos Rezola company in the neighborhood transformed Añorga into an industrial-type neighborhood, although it will lose its rural character that it once had. Even considering Añorga a single neighborhood, three distinct neighborhoods are generally distinguished: Añorga (Añorga Haundi), Añorga-Txiki and Rekalde. According to the National Institute of Statistics, it had 1769 inhabitants in 2013.
Zubieta
The exclave Zubieta (meaning ‘place of bridges’) was a village up to recent years, with a number of houses, a handball pitch (on account of its single wall as opposed to the regular two) and a church. Yet it has undergone a great urban development, which has rendered the location a built-up area with paved streets and due equipment. Two contested projects are under way to build a solid-waste incinerator and a prison nearby. Historically, neighbours from Donostia held a meeting at a house in the former village in the wake of the 1813 burning, in order to decide the reconstruction of the town.
Culture and events
San Sebastián shows a dynamic cultural scene, where grass-roots initiative based on different parts of the city and the concerted private and public synergy have paved the ground for a rich range of possibilities and events catering to the tastes of a wide and selected public alike. The city was selected as European Capital of Culture for 2016 (shared with Wrocław, Poland) with a basic motto, “Waves of people’s energy”, summarizing a clear message: people and movements of citizens are the real driving force behind transformations and changes in the world.
Events ranging from traditional city festivals to music, theatre or cinema take place all year round, while they specially thrive in summer. In the last week of July, San Sebastián’s Jazz Festival (Jazzaldia), the longest, continuously running Jazz Festival in Europe is held. In different spots of the city gigs are staged, sometimes with free admission. The Musical Fortnight comes next extending for at least fifteen days well into August and featuring classical music concerts. In September, the San Sebastián International Film Festival comes to the spotlight, an event with more than 50 years revolving around the venues of Kursaal and the Victoria Eugenia Theatre. The city is also home to the San Telmo Museoa, a major cultural institution with an ethnographic, artistic and civic vocation.
Sticking to the cinematic language but lacking its echo, Street Zinema is an international audiovisual festival exploring contemporary art and urban cultures. Other local events include the Horror and Fantasy Festival in October (21st edition in 2010) and the Surfilm Festibal, a cinema festival featuring surfing footage, especially shorts. During centuries, the city has been open to many influences that have left a trace, often mingling with the local customs and traditions and eventually resulting in festivals and new customs.
San Sebastián Day
Every year on 20 January (the feast of Saint Sebastian), the people of San Sebastián celebrate a festival known as the “Tamborrada”. At midnight, in the Konstituzio plaza in the “Alde Zaharra/Parte Vieja” (Old Part), the mayor raises the flag of San Sebastián (see in the infobox). For 24 hours, the entire city is awash with the sound of drums. The adults, dressed as cooks and soldiers, march around the city. They march all night with their cook hats and white aprons with the March of San Sebastián.
On this day a procession was held in the early 19th century from the Santa Maria Church in the Old Part to the San Sebastián Church in the district of Antiguo, while later limited on the grounds of weather conditions to the in-wall area. The event finished with a popular dancing accompanied on the military band’s flutes and drums. In addition, every day a soldier parade took place to change the guards at the town’s southern walls. Since the San Sebastián Day was the first festival heralding the upcoming Carnival, it’s no surprise that some youths in Carnival mood followed them aping their martial manners and drumrolls, using for the purpose the buckets left at the fountains. In the period spanning the 1860s and 1880s the celebrations started to shape as we know them today with proper military style outfits and parades and the tunes fashioned by music composer Raimundo Sarriegui.
Adults usually have dinner in txokos (“gourmet clubs”), who traditionally admitted only males, but nowadays even the strictest ones allow women on the “Noche de la Tamborrada”. They eat sophisticated meals cooked by themselves, mostly composed of seafood (traditionally elvers, now no longer served due to its exorbitant price) and drink the best wines. For “Donostiarras” this is the most celebrated festival of the year.
La Semana Grande/Aste Nagusia
A festival, La Semana Grande in Spanish and Aste Nagusia in Basque (“The Big/Main Week”), is held every year in mid-August. A major international fireworks competition is held during the festival, in which teams representing various countries and cities put on a fireworks display each night over the bay, with the winner of the contest announced at the end. The displays are sometimes accompanied by a full live orchestra performing on the boardwalk. Attendees often claim spots along the beach and bay hours in advance. The festival also includes a parade of marching bands, stilted entertainers, and big-heads costumes every afternoon.
Basque Week
This decades long festivity taking place at the beginning of September features events related to Basque culture, such as performances of traditional improvising poets (bertsolaris), Basque pelota games, stone lifting contests, oxen wagers, dance exhibitions or the cider tasting festival. Yet the main highlight may be the rowing boat competition, where teams from different towns of the Bay of Biscay contend for the Flag of La Concha. Thousands of supporters coming from these coastal locations pour into the city’s streets and promenades overlooking the bay to follow the event, especially on the Sunday of the final race. All day long the streets of the Old Part play host to droves of youths clad in their team colours who party there in a cheerful atmosphere.
Santa Ageda Bezpera
Saint Agatha’s Eve is a traditional event taking place at the beginning of February or end of January in many spots of the Basque Country. It holds a small but cherished slot in the city’s run-up to the Carnival. Groups dressed up in Basque traditional farmer costume march across the neighbourhood singing and wielding a characteristic stick beaten on the ground to the rhythm of the traditional Saint Agatha‘s tune. The singers ask for a small donation, which can be money, a drink or something to eat.
Caldereros
This is a local festival held on the first Saturday of February linked to the upcoming Carnival, where different groups of people dressed in Romani (Gypsy) tinkers attire take to the streets banging rhythmically a hammer or spoon against a pot or pan, and usually bar-hop while they sing the traditional songs for the occasion. They were just male voices some time ago, but women participate and sing currently too, and the main event is at the City Hall, where the city band plays marches while the crowds bang the pots and pans. The festival began in 1884.
Santo Tomas
The Santo Tomas festival takes place on Thomas the Apostle‘s day, 21 December. From the early morning, stalls are erected around the city centre, and visitors from across Gipuzkoa come to the centre and the Old Part, many dressed in traditional Basque “farmer” outfits. Traditional and typical produce is sold from the stalls; the main drink is cider and the most popular snacks are txistorra, a thin, uncured chorizo wrapped in talo flatbread. A large pig is displayed in Plaza Constitucion, which is raffled off during the festival.
Olentzero
As in other Basque cities, towns and villages, on Christmas Eve the Olentzero and the accompanying carol singers usually dressed in Basque farmer costume take over the streets, especially in the city centre, asking for small donations in bars, shops and banks after singing their repertoire. Sometimes Olentzero choirs roam around the streets in later dates, on the 31st for example, and are often related to cultural, social or political associations and demands.
