The Encierro Route at Walking Speed: A Detailed Photo Tour

The encierro route cannot be understood from a map. Maps show distance and turns. They do not show gradient, they do not show the compression of medieval streets, they do not show the moment when you round a corner and realize that what you thought was a wide plaza is actually a trap. The only way to truly understand the route is to walk it, stand in it, feel the incline, and see what a runner sees from ground level.

Dennis Clancey, founder of Encierro and member of La Unica Pena, walks the route every morning during fiesta. “I’ll always walk in the morning the full length of where I intend to run so I can see the route. Sometimes I’m picking up trash, but I want to see what it looks like. I wanna see how crowded it is. I wanna feel those stones.” His morning ritual is not about checking email or reviewing notes. It is about re-familiarizing himself with the physical reality of what he is about to run through.

This photo tour takes you along that same path, from the corrals to the bullring, with stops at the critical junctures where the route changes character and where first-time runners face their most consequential decisions.

Starting at the Corrals and Encierrillo

The route begins at the corrals, located at the bottom of Santo Domingo. This is where the bulls spend the pre-dawn hours before the run. The encierrillo, a smaller holding pen, is where they rest after the evening corrida (bullfight). The architectural context matters: Spain sits to the north and west, the Pyrenees mountains form the natural boundary, and the Rio Arga flows to the north, with implications for how water runs through the streets and how the geography slopes.

When you stand at the corrals in the pre-dawn darkness, you are at the lowest point of the entire route. Everything from here rises. The slope of Santo Domingo is immediately apparent, even at a glance. What may have seemed subtle in maps becomes visceral when you are standing at the base of it. The barrier system at the corral exit channels the bulls up Santo Domingo and away toward the bullring. The temporary barrier that Dennis mentions swings to position them correctly for the morning run.

Most runners do not arrive at the corrals until the official start approaches. But experienced runners position themselves lower, at the base of Santo Domingo, because this gives them the longest stretch of the route to assess their readiness before the true compression begins. The corral area is also where the route is widest and where crowd density is initially lowest.

The Portico and San Fermin Cantico

As you climb Santo Domingo, a small portico with a statue of San Fermin appears on the right side. This is a pilgrim site, and it is also a cultural marker on the encierro route. This is where the traditional cantico to San Fermin is sung. The cantico is the morning prayer of the mozos, asking for a safe run. Experienced runners often pause here, even if briefly, to mark the transition from corral preparation to active route.

The portico is also a visual reference point. From here, you can see the full slope of Santo Domingo below you and the beginning of the transitions above you. The statue itself marks a shift in the architecture of the street, and immediately past the statue, the surface of the street changes from the initial approach to steeper adoquines (cobblestones).

Most tour guides stop here or include this moment in their teaching. It is both a physical landmark and a spiritual marker. For first-timers who have never run before, walking this route and stopping at the portico helps contextualize what the actual run will feel like: focused, intentional, and steeped in cultural significance.

Santo Domingo: The Steep Climb

Santo Domingo is 280 meters long with a gradient that reaches 10 percent at its steepest sections. Walking it, you feel the incline immediately. Running it, you feel it intensely. The entire section is boxed in by vertical stone walls, creating a canyon effect. Morning light penetrates partially, but the street remains shaded throughout most of the year. Okdiario’s encierro photography captures the scale and intensity that these street-level views reveal.

According to sanfermines.net, “the bulls run the fastest” in Santo Domingo “as they are fresh and ready to run, and it is far easier for them to run uphill since their front legs are shorter than their back ones.” This explains a counterintuitive fact: the steepest section of the route is where the bulls move fastest. For a runner, this means the bulls will overtake you quickly in Santo Domingo if you have positioned yourself here.

The left side of Santo Domingo features the town hall facade. Dennis notes that there are “no barriers because it’s a facade of the town hall building.” The right side has barrier sections and includes the Zaldiko steakhouse with its short barrier area. The curbs that remain in this section are a hazard that does not exist elsewhere on the route.

The white limestone band that runs along the left side near the top of the slope is noticeably more slippery than the surrounding adoquines when wet. Walking Santo Domingo in the morning light, you can identify this band and understand why runners who have slipped here describe it as deceptively treacherous.

As you crest Santo Domingo and approach the top, the street opens slightly. This is the approach to town hall. The psychological relief is immediate: you have climbed a significant hill, and the route begins to spread out.

Town Hall and the Opening to Mercaderes

Town hall square is bright and wider than Santo Domingo, even though it is still a medieval plaza with constraints. “This second section of the run is flat, and brighter than the Santo Domingo slope. It is 100 metres in length with an average width of 9 metres,” according to sanfermines.net. The difference from Santo Domingo is marked: brightness, openness, and relative flatness.

The town hall building itself dominates the left side. The facade is iconic, and the plaza has hosted many official ceremonies and cultural events of San Fermin. For runners, town hall is often recommended as the optimal section for first-timers. The space allows for lateral movement, the flatness removes the gravitational component that makes Santo Domingo dangerous, and the brightness and openness provide visibility.

The route takes a slight bend to the left at the start of Mercaderes. This transition point is where you can see the contrast between the plaza and the narrowing street that follows. Walking this transition, you understand the architectural logic: the medieval city narrows because the earlier built sections had fewer streets.

Dennis’s touring protocol includes a technical demonstration at town hall. This is where runners often learn the basic running technique, the positioning that works across most of the route, and the assessment of when to continue versus when to exit. The space accommodates a group of tourists or learning runners without creating the same crowd density that exists during the actual fiesta.

Mercaderes: The Narrow Corridor

Mercaderes is the first section where you feel compressed. The street narrows from the town hall width to about 9 meters, and the facades on both sides create a canyon similar to Santo Domingo, but without the slope. This is a straight section, which is an advantage, but it is also a section where the crowd density increases noticeably because the street is narrower than what preceded it.

“Runners will sometimes look for the camera flashes or where the people on the balcony are looking” in this section, as Dennis mentions. The balconies overlooking Mercaderes are premium viewing positions, and you can see them from street level. The camera flashes that illuminate the section briefly during the actual run are visible from Mercaderes as well. This is one of the sections where visual cues about bull location are easiest to detect.

The barrera sections on both sides provide exit points, but as Dennis warns, exiting through a barrera in Mercaderes during the run is risky because of the crowding and the momentum of runners from Santo Domingo. Many runners choose to exit here if they have determined they want to stop, but they do so in the pre-run morning, not during the active event.

The transition from Mercaderes to La Curva is sharp. You round a corner, and suddenly the street opens and turns at a right angle. The architectural shift is dramatic.

La Curva de Estafeta: The Dangerous Turn

La Curva de Estafeta is the right-angle turn that has become the most famous section of the encierro outside of Santo Domingo. It is dangerous for an entirely different reason than Santo Domingo: the turn itself causes bulls to slip due to centrifugal force. When you walk this turn, the geometry is immediately apparent. The turn is tight, and any animal moving at speed will have difficulty maintaining footing on wet stone.

Dennis advises first-timers against running this section: “No one wants to run there for the first time. Given how challenging it is.” The combination of the tight turn, the slippery stone, the separated bulls that result from the turn, and the crowding makes this the most consistently dangerous section of the entire route.

The barrier on the left side of the turn contains the outer edge. The right side feeds into the beginning of Estafeta. From street level, the perspective is dizzying: you are standing at the bottom of a turn that has destroyed the spacing of bulls and created multiple emergencies per run. Yet it is also the most visually dramatic section of the route. Diario AS provides additional visual context in its comprehensive encierro coverage.

Walking La Curva, you can identify the exact spots where bulls typically slip. The scarring on the stone and the wear patterns show where contact occurs repeatedly. The barrier itself shows impact marks and damage that accumulates year after year. This is a section where visual evidence of the danger is literally written on the pavement and walls.

Estafeta: The Long Straightaway

Estafeta is 300 meters long, straight, slightly uphill at a 2 percent gradient, and famous for being the section where most runners choose to run. The initial entry to Estafeta from La Curva is marked by “a spectacular start with a 90° right angle bend; the centrifugal force causes the bulls to impact against the outer fencing, fall over and become separated from the herd,” according to sanfermines.net.

Once past that initial bend, the street straightens for a long run. The facades on both sides are mostly boarded up, creating a uniform wall effect. “Estafeta: mostly boarded-up facades, temporary breaks at Bajada de Javier and after Barfedero where street widens,” Dennis notes. Walking these sections reveals that the boarded-up facades are a mix of protective plywood from repeat years and original architectural elements beneath.

Two points where the street widens (Bajada de Javier and after Barfedero) provide moments of psychological relief. The narrower sections feel more enclosed; the wider moments feel more open. The psychological effect is significant: runners in the wider sections feel they have more space to maneuver.

The barrera sections on Estafeta exist but are less prominent than in earlier sections. The swing doors designed to contain reversed bulls are not visible from inside the run, but they exist and serve as contingency structures.

Most runners complete the Estafeta section without incident or contact with bulls. The straightness of the section, the slight uphill grade that slows the bulls slightly, and the openness of the space combine to create a section that feels, comparatively, manageable. This is why it is the most popular choice for experienced runners who want a comfortable run.

Telefonica to the Tunnel

The final section begins at the Telefonica building and continues as the route narrows toward and through the tunnel. This section is “the brightest and the only one with a gentle slope downwards. Here the bulls are tired and run slower than at the beginning of the run,” according to sanfermines.net. The width decreases from 9 meters at the start to a bottleneck of 3.5 meters at the tunnel entrance. See our detailed look at the Telefonica stretch for more on this final section.

Walking this section, the narrowing effect is visceral. You move from a relatively open section to a progressively constricted space. The tunnel itself is only 25 meters long, shaded, and sandy. The transition from stone to sand is dramatic underfoot and affects running gait significantly.

This is the final section where runners have any real choice about what happens next. Once in the tunnel, momentum carries you forward. The tunnel opens into the bullring, and the sand floor provides the final 50 meters before the actual corrida begins. Most runners who reach this point are committed to completion; turning back is not practical here.

Dennis notes the ambulance staging area near the end of this section: “The facade under the bank on the right side falls away to create a triangular space where the ambulances sit just before getting to La Curva.” Actually, this refers to an earlier area. The final section itself provides emergency access and medical support stations, but the route is funneled enough that exits are limited.

Expert Insight: Dennis Clancey on Walking the Route

“I’ll always walk in the morning the full length of where I intend to run so I can see the route. Sometimes I’m picking up trash, but I want to see what it looks like. I wanna see how crowded it is. I wanna feel those stones. Our job is not done until we’ve answered everyone’s questions. And in some cases, I’ll walk back down the run route to a section because someone wants to discuss it further. We take what we do very seriously. We’re runners. And we take pride in that. I get up at 04:30 sometimes for tours during fiesta and go until midnight. This is our passion.”

— Dennis Clancey, founder of Encierro and member of La Unica Pena

For a comprehensive video walkthrough of the entire route, watch Dennis Clancey’s Definitive Guide to Running with Bulls, available in 16 languages:

Dennis’s commitment to walking the route every morning is not performative. It is a deliberate practice that he has extended to the public through the Encierro tour program. He has invested years in understanding the route at walking speed, running speed, and teaching speed. The passion evident in his statement about 04:30 mornings reflects how seriously Encierro takes its mission to prepare runners safely.

For a comprehensive video walkthrough of the entire route, watch the Definitive Guide to Running with Bulls, a video guide presented by Dennis Clancey and available in 16 languages. This video provides perspectives from multiple locations on the route and includes technical demonstrations of running technique at various sections.

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