Ernest Hemingway, Pamplona and Spanish Courses

The festival Sanfermines is a big celebration in honour of Saint Fermin which takes place in the capital city of Navarre, Pamplona. The most famous event during the celebration is the bull-running, el encierro, which consists of 800 meters running in front of the bulls leading them to the Plaza de Toros. The festivities take place each year from 7th to 14th July and people from all around the world gather for the festival. Aproximately 3 million tourist arrive in Pamplona for this week which makes the festival the third most visited in the world after the carnaval in Rio de Janeiro and the Oktoberfest in Munich. The events of San Fermin are central to the plot of the novel “The Sun Also Rises” by the American writer Earnest Hemingway who has contributed immensely in making this Spanish tradition so popular.

Hemingway visited Pamplona for the first time in 1923 and was quite impressed by the Fiesta de San Fermin which was taking place in the town. At this time the celebration was much more local and not as known worldwide as we think of it nowadays. The city´s atmosphere, the play of the bull-fighters with the bulls and the death, in particular, was something that had a great impact on Hemingway. The author liked the idea of bull-fighting and chose it as central to his popular novel “The Sun Also Rises”. After publishing the book Hemingway returned to Pamplona eight more times to visit the celebration of San Fermin. Many tourists were seduced by his description of the festival and soon San Fermin turned from a local celebration into one of the most popular ones worldwide.

Today a lot of the places which Hemingway used to visit are open for tourists. During an excursion to Pamplona that took place on 27th June students from the Institute Hemingway were able to see the Café Iruña, Hotel La Perla, Plaza de Toros, and Plaza del Castillo which are dedicated to the American author. The Hemingway route in Pamplona is a very famous attraction for tourists from all over the world.

Ernest Hemingway, a representative of the “lost generation”, run before the bulls, made friends with famous bullfighters, ate, drunk and lived with the locals. He got to be part of the unique atmosphere of the Sanfermines and experience the tradition like the Spanish people did. On a monument of the American author one can read the following dedication: To Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Laureate in Literature, friend of this city and admirer of its fiestas, which he discovered and brought fame to. La Ciudad de Pamplona, San Fermín, 1968.

Institute Hemingway would like to invite its students to feel the Spanish culture and experience it like Hemingway did. There is no better way of discovering the Spanish world than being in a direct contact with it. Enjoy your adventures in Spain with Institute Hemingway!