Ernest Hemingway

"Greatest country you ever saw"

Hemingway in Pamplona

In July of 1923 Ernest Hemingway came from France to know the already popular festivals of San Fermín.

“Pamplona is a swell town, on a plateau in the middle of the Mountains of Navarre. Greatest country you ever saw”, he wrote.

What Hemingway found in Pamplona changed his life forever. The writer gave San Fermin Festivals the definitive push to turn it into one of the most famous fiestas in the world. Hemingway will visit Pamplona on 10 occasions, 9 of them during the Sanfermines.

The novel that changed everything

The sun also rises - Fiesta

Ernest Hemingway’s first great novel was published in 1926. Apart from being a success for the writer, it launched to fame a small Spanish city like Pamplona. Hemingway shows the world the Festivals of San Fermin. In the novel, Hemingway talks about the San Fermin Festivals and the experiences of a group of friends (one of them being his alter ego). Everything that happens in the novel gives us a glimpse of Hemingway’s experiences in Pamplona and what the Sanfermines had marked him: the fiesta and the running of the bulls.
Following his footsteps

Hemingway Route in Pamplona

Hemingway visited many places during his visits to Pamplona. We know this because of the photographs of the time in which the writer appears, the letters he wrote to his friends or because they appear in his famous novel “The sun also rises” translated to Spanish as “Fiesta”.

Some of these places are already history of Pamplona and have not reached our days as the Hotel Quintana, Casa Marceliano or the Pocholas. Others are emblematic places of the old city.

Hotel La Perla

Hotel with a lot of history that hosted Hemingway on several occasions.

Café Iruña

The oldest café in Pamplona and the most emblematic and beautiful.

Monument to Hemingway

Inaugurated by his widow in 1968.

"I will never be able to do more than Pamplona has done for me".

Hemingway in Pamplona

Myth and reality

Much has been written and talked about Hemingway’s visit to Pamplona. About the places he visited, about what he did… The figure of Hemingway is fascinating because he moves between myth and reality. Everyone has anecdotes about Hemingway in Pamplona. We will never know if they were true or not.

In Pamplona, talking about Hemingway is talking about the gratitude for the worldwide fame that he gave to the festivities, but as well about the huge amount of people that come to the city during those days.

The fame he gave to Pamplona will always be positive. The festivals are a showcase to shout to the world that we have the best festivity in the world.

Would San Fermín be different if Hemingway had not come to Pamplona in 1923? We will never know.

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