El Encierro (The Running of the Bulls)

Estafeta (mid section 470meters)

El encierro, or bull run, is the best known aspect of the festival and the one which has brought ¡t fame beyond our frontiers. lt is a show of pride in our race whose fame has led to ¡t almost growing out of hand for those who really like to participase in ¡t.

The run, of 825 meters, starts from the corrals on Calle Santo Domingo where the bulls have spent the night, just outside the Old Town and heads across town to where they enter the bullring to await their fate.

Encierro monument

The story is simple: in the old days, when the herdsmen brought their bulls across country from their pastures to fight in the bullring, they used to spend the night just outside the city and at dawn on the day of the bullfight, they would run through the town accompanied by oxen or tame bulls and people who on horseback or running alongside, helped to drive them into the stalls with shouts and sticks. With time, nobody knows for sure when, people began the tradition of running in front of the bulls, instead of behind or urging them on from the sidelines. Thus, what began as a kind of help took on the character of entertainment until finally ¡t became the peculiar custom which distinguishes the fiestas of San Fermín, the encierro.

Estafeta (Balcony View)

At eight o'clock a first rocket indicates the opening of the gate of the enclosure and a second announces that all the bulls have left and are running up the steep slope of the Cuesta de Santo Domingo, on their way to the Square infront of the City Hall. Having passed through there the bulls go into Mercaderes street and then on into Estafeta. From this point ¡t is normal for a bull to break away from the group, increasing the danger of someone being hurt. Estafeta street is straight, slightly uphill and long; at the end the section named de la Telefónica, crossing infront of the telephone exchange, begins the downhill slope leading to the passageway into the bull ring. This is a dangerous stretch, protected by two rows of fencing and inside the passage way, alcoves where people can take refuge if theyfall. Finally, after the funnel of the passageway the run breaks into a thousand pieces escaping in the shape of a fan away from the bunch of bulls which, if they are not distracted by the colourful human sea in front of their eyes, will go towards the door of the corrals, helped by the hearty cries of the dobladores beckoning them with their bullfighting capes.

When all the bulls are in the ring a third rocket is fired and, once they are through the door of the corral, a fourth announces that the encierro is over.