The walls of San Sebastian

If you walk alongside the Boulevard on a not very busy day, maybe you will see a line of red paving stones on the floor that goes until some flowers that end up at a bandstand. What you are seeing over there is the original outline of the city walls, which started to be demolished in 1863 to allow the growth of the city.

This wall was an impressive thing. It was 280 metres long with a width of 15 metres and had an average height of 13 metres. When they teared it down, they teared down almost 700 years of military history, opening the doors to the huge urban and touristic development that San Sebastian experienced during the XIX century and the beginning of the XX. 

(Photo: The demolishion/www.kutxateka.eus)

We normally explain this during our Free Tour, and many times you ask us if there are any remains of the city walls. And actually there is… although it is a bit hidden. You have to go down to the first floor of the underground parking, where you can find a photograph of the day they took it down, it was shocking to learn that it was still there!