San Fermín 1903 was the first fiesta the Diario de Navarra covered, in its first year in print.6 The bull run (encierro) started at six in the morning; the known run days were Wednesday, July 8, Friday, July 10 and Sunday, July 12, with bulls of Muruve, the Duque de Veragua and Antonio Halcón, and the paper called the run both encierro and entrada.1, 4, 5, 6, 7
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The fiestas opened on San Fermín’s day, July 7, with the procession of the saint along its usual route, and closed on Sunday, July 12, under a storm that lasted three hours.14, 7
The mayor’s bando set the encierro, by tradition, for “á las seis en punto de la mañana”. From 5:45 children and youths under 16, women, the elderly and the infirm were not to be on the streets of the course; doors of houses, shops and businesses on the course stayed shut from 5:45 until the signal that the herd was in the ring; no public was allowed between the barriers. Those who ran into the ring ahead of the herd had to go straight to the barriers and then up into the stands.1 The city even sold box seats for the encierro.2
The known run days were July 8, 10 and 12. The run on the 8th is reported in the next day’s paper, the run on the 10th is in that morning’s programme, and the run on the 12th is in both the programme and the report.4, 5, 6, 7 No one died in the 1903 encierros: the City of Pamplona’s list of encierro deaths begins in 1910.17
| Date | Run | Ranch (ganadería) | What the paper reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 8 | Known run 1 | Muruve | “La entrada se verificó ayer sin novedad alguna” |
| July 10 | Known run 2 | Duque de Veragua | Programme: encierro at six, six bulls named |
| July 12 | Known run 3, last | Antonio Halcón | Fence fell at the slaughterhouse; a man tossed in the ring, unhurt |
Known run 1
The programme announced for six in the morning “la entrada de los toros de la ganadería de Muruve”, the entry of the Muruve bulls, from Seville.3 The next day the paper reported in one line: “La entrada se verificó ayer sin novedad alguna.” The run went off without incident.4 The Muruve and Halcón bulls had reached Castejón and were to be unloaded in Pamplona on the afternoon of July 1.13
Known run 2
The programme printed that morning: “Encierro. A las seis de la mañana”, with the six bulls of the Duque de Veragua, red and white colours, named one by one in the programme (see the bulls below).5 Six Veragua bulls had been unloaded in Pamplona the week before in front of a large crowd, which liked what it saw.12
Known run 3, the last
For Sunday the programme announced that at six “entraránlos toros de la ganadería de don Antonio Halcón”, of Seville.6 In the early hours, as the Halcón bulls were being moved from the gas works to the small corral at the Rochapea gate, part of the fence set up in front of the slaughterhouse fell; the bulls were held until it was mended, while a great many people waited to see them pass.7 The next day the paper explained that the fence had come down under the crush of onlookers.8 As the bulls entered the ring, one that had got ahead of the rest caught a man and tossed him, “sin consecuencias”, without consequences.7
The six Veragua bulls named in the programme of July 10, the lot that ran that morning, with their coats as printed and in English.5
| Name | Coat (as printed) | Coat in English |
|---|---|---|
| Toledano | negro listón | black, with a lighter stripe along the spine |
| Feo | negro bragado | black, with white on the belly |
| Condeso | negro bragado, salpicado por detrás | black, white belly, flecked with white behind |
| Larguito | negro entrepelado, bragado, rebarbo | black with white hairs mixed in, white belly, white tail tuft |
| Sanguijuelo | cárdeno, salpicado, bragado | grey (black and white hairs mixed), flecked, white belly |
| Querencioso | berrendo en colorado, moteado, ojo de perdiz | red and white pied, spotted, with red rings round the eyes |
A young man in a beret and waistcoat sits playing a guitar beside a great ornamental “Pamplona” and a sheet of music. Below him are the chains of Navarra, and on the left the giants of Pamplona. The credit at the foot reads “Boceto original de M. Salvi, adjudicado en concurso y premiado en la Exposición de Arte de Madrid”: the design won a competition.16
The poster announces the fiestas from July 7 and names the ranches whose bulls came that year: Muruve, Halcón, the Duque de Veragua, the sons of V. Martínez, the Conde de Espoz y Mina and Lizaso Hermanos. It also lists encierros, fireworks, giants and big-heads, morning concerts and the violinist Pablo Sarasate.16
Ollaquindía’s chapter on 1903 recalls a folk verse that put the encierro beside Navarra’s ancient laws: “Los Fueros son nuestra vida y el encierro nuestra fiesta”, the Fueros are our life and the encierro our fiesta.15
Words of 1903
In 1903 the paper used two words for the run. The bando speaks of “el encierro del ganado”; the programme and the report of July 8 speak of la entrada, the entry of the bulls. A visitor writing in the paper on July 14 picked up the local word: “Lo que ustedes llaman entrada me parece un peligro grave”, what you call the entrada seems to me a grave danger.1, 3, 4, 9 Other words of the year: corralillo, the small corral at the Rochapea gate, and vallado, the fence.7
Getting ready
A humour column of July 14 has its narrator buying white alpargatas, the rope-soled canvas shoes, “decidido á correr delante de los toros”, determined to run ahead of the bulls up calle Estafeta.10
On the roads
Before the fiestas, the mayors of the villages on the road from Pamplona to Irurzun complained to the city about the danger when bulls bound for San Sebastián and other towns were driven along the road past their fields, and asked for the passage to be banned or announced in advance.11
Photographs
The city’s photo archive, the Fototeca de Pamplona, holds historic photographs of the encierro, free to view online.18
The known run days of San Fermín 1903 were Wednesday, July 8 (Muruve), Friday, July 10 (Duque de Veragua) and Sunday, July 12, 1903 (Antonio Halcón), each at six in the morning.3, 4, 5, 6, 7
The running of the bulls of San Fermín 1903 started at six sharp in the morning, by tradition, as the mayor’s bando set it; doors on the course stayed shut from 5:45 until the herd was in the ring.1
The mayor’s bando of 1903 kept children and youths under 16, women, the elderly and the infirm off the streets of the encierro course from 5:45 in the morning, and allowed no public between the barriers.1
The running of the bulls was called both encierro and entrada in 1903. The bando speaks of “el encierro del ganado”; the programme and the report of July 8 speak of “la entrada”, the entry of the bulls, and a visitor wrote “lo que ustedes llaman entrada”, what you call the entrada.1, 3, 4, 9
No one died in the running of the bulls of San Fermín 1903: the City of Pamplona’s list of encierro deaths begins in 1910. On July 12, 1903 a bull caught and tossed a man in the ring, without consequences.17, 7
M. Salvi made the San Fermín 1903 poster; the credit on it says the original sketch won a competition and a prize at the Exposición de Arte in Madrid. It shows a young man in a beret playing a guitar beside the word Pamplona.16
Numbers on the page refer to this list. Diario de Navarra pages are cited from its archive (hemeroteca); quotations in Spanish are given as printed, in the spelling of the day.
Encierro. “Running of the Bulls 1903: San Fermín in Pamplona.” Encierro.com, November 9, 2026. https://encierro.com/san-fermin-1903/