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The Encierro archive · 1922

Running of the Bulls 1922: San Fermín in Pamplona

1922 was the year of the new bullring. The bull run (encierro) of Friday, July 7, at six in the morning, “se inauguró oficialmente la nueva plaza”: it officially opened Pamplona’s new ring, with more than eight thousand people in the stands alone. There was a run every morning from July 7 to Tuesday, July 11, over a new final stretch to the new ring; on July 9 some seventeen thousand people filled it.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 1

By Encierro · Last reviewed

17,000in the new ring, July 9
5runs, July 7 to 11
6:00start, a.m.

How the fiesta ran in 1922

The old ring stood behind the theatre, at the start of what is now avenida de Carlos III; built in 1844 and rebuilt in 1852, it seated more than eight thousand people in comfort. The Casa de Misericordia built the new one in fourteen months: reinforced concrete, in Spanish Renaissance style, for thirteen thousand spectators.9

Two nights before the first encierro, two reserve bulls of Díaz and half a dozen young bulls were penned in the corrals of the new ring, “el primer ganado que ha pisado y albergado la nueva plaza de toros”, the first livestock the new ring ever held.2 The mayor’s bando warned that the gate the herd used would open at 5:55 for the runners only, not the public, to avoid accidents “por desconocimiento de la nueva carrera”, from not knowing the new course.1

The crowds grew with the ring. The paper put the crowd at the July 9 encierro at no fewer than seventeen thousand, by the reckoning of people used to judging crowds; at an encierro some twelve thousand had squeezed into the old one. Many more watched from side streets and balconies along the way.5

Every known encierro of 1922, by day and ranch

The encierros of San Fermín 1922, the first into the new bullring, from the Diario de Navarra programmes and reports.
DateRunRanch (ganadería)What the paper reported
July 71Heirs of Vicente Martínez (programme)New ring opened; a pile-up at the gate
July 82Cándido DíazUnder three minutes
July 93Villar HermanosAbout 17,000 in the ring
July 104MiuraBulls ran far ahead of the steers
July 115, lastConde de Santa ColomaFive bulls loose; one had escaped the night before

The 1922 encierros, day by day

Run 1 of 5, the new ring

· Heirs of Vicente Martínez (programme)

Start6:00 a.m.
In the stands8,000 and more
Hurt3

“Con el encierro de ayer se inauguró oficialmente la nueva plaza”, the paper wrote: the encierro officially opened the new ring and proved how solid it was, with eight thousand and more people in the stands alone, more than the whole old ring had held. The course could not hold the several hundred who ran in ahead of the herd. Because it was the first day, one runner fell, then two, then twenty, forty, sixty, and the wall of people blocked the bulls completely; the bulls fell onto the crowd. It lasted seconds but felt like forty minutes of anguish, and turned out to be one more incident of the encierro. Three people were hurt: a musician of the band La Pamplonesa broke his left collarbone, and two older workmen from outside Pamplona, who had worked on the foundations of the Ensanche, were also injured, one with a horn wound to the thigh.3 The programme named the bulls of the heirs of Vicente Martínez for the day.2

Run 2 of 5

· Cándido Díaz

TimeUnder 3 minutes
IncidentsNone

At six sharp, at the bang of two rockets, the Díaz bulls left the little corral of Rochapea and “hicieron el recorrido en menos de tres minutos”, ahead of a big crowd that this time kept a fair distance. The bulls ran wrapped in their steers, “como borregos”, like lambs, and nothing happened. At the ring gate the crowd opened “en pintoresco abanico”, in a picturesque fan, and the bulls crossed the ring straight into the corral.4

Run 3 of 5

· Villar Hermanos

In the ringAbout 17,000

“El encierro de anteayer fueron los toros de los señores Villar Hermanos”, the paper reported: the bulls of Villar Hermanos ran. The new ring held “un gentío que no bajaría de 17.000 almas”, a crowd of no fewer than seventeen thousand, the paper reported; some twelve thousand had squeezed into the old ring at an encierro.5

Run 4 of 5

· Miura

Out of the ring by6:45 a.m.

The six Miura bulls ran the course completely apart from the steers, which were far behind, driving the runners ahead of them to the pavements and fences. They came into the ring so close to the runners that one was pushed over by a bull, and two bulls hooked at him on the ground without touching a thread of his clothes. The bulls milled about the ring until the steers arrived and took them into the corrals. By a quarter to seven the crowd had poured out to the café terraces and the churro stalls.6 A photograph of José María García Mina falling in front of the herd in calle Mercaderes that day became famous; the 1923 fiesta programme printed it on its back cover.11

Run 5 of 5, the last

· Conde de Santa Coloma

Bulls in the run5 of 6
Escaped the night before1, Lucero

At ten the night before, as the six Santa Coloma bulls were taken up from the Gas corrals to the little corral of Rochapea, one, “«Lucero» de nombre y lucero de pelo”, Lucero by name and by its white star, which the others had been butting and keeping apart, jumped the parapet of the road about twenty metres short of the corral and landed in a leafy tree on the bank of the Arga. It was caught and brought up at half past one in the morning, into the ring through the very gate of the encierro, surrounded by steers.7 So only five ran. “El encierro de ayer fué en extremo emocionante”: they ran loose and far from the steers, hooking left and right, and one charged the fence at the ring gate; they came in by turns, two bulls, then boys, then another bull and more boys.8

San Fermín 1922 poster (cartel)

San Fermín 1922 poster (cartel) by J. Briñol: a black bull with a pale back trots over the cobbles of a Pamplona street while runners scatter, one climbing a lamppost and another, in white, at a doorway between stone columns; the shield of Pamplona and the words Pamplona, Fiestas y Ferias de San Fermín below
Cartel de San Fermín 1922. Poster of San Fermín 1922, signed J. Briñol. Tap the poster to see it full size. See every San Fermín poster.12
San Fermín 1922 poster (cartel) by J. Briñol: a black bull with a pale back trots over the cobbles of a Pamplona street while runners scatter, one climbing a lamppost and another, in white, at a doorway between stone columns; the shield of Pamplona and the words Pamplona, Fiestas y Ferias de San Fermín below
Artist
J. Briñol (signature)
Words
Pamplona, Fiestas y Ferias de S. Fermín, 1922

The 1922 poster puts the encierro itself on the cover: a black bull with a pale back trots across the cobbles while the runners scatter. One climbs a lamppost, one in a red sash runs for it, and a man in white makes for a doorway between stone columns. The shield of Pamplona sits in a border of roses above the words “Pamplona, Fiestas y Ferias de S. Fermín”.12

Inside, the programme of 1922 printed a report on the new ring, with two photographs of its model, the main front and the interior. It praised a building where “el público hallará mayores comodidades”, the public would find more comfort, while the sunny seats were left unnumbered to keep the old liveliness of the young crowd.9

Pamplona in 1922

The new ring

Built in fourteen months

The 1922 fiesta programme described the new ring as reinforced concrete in Spanish Renaissance style, for 13,000 spectators, built by the Casa de Misericordia.9

Words of 1922

La nueva carrera

The mayor called the new course “la nueva carrera”. A white star on a bull’s forehead is a lucero, and Lucero was the escaped bull’s name. Bulls that ran calmly with the steers went “como borregos”.1, 7, 4

Photographs

Where to see old photographs

The city’s photo archive, the Fototeca de Pamplona, holds historic photographs of the encierro, free to view online.10

San Fermín 1922: questions and answers

When did Pamplona’s bullring open?

Pamplona’s present bullring opened with the running of the bulls of Friday, July 7, 1922: the Diario de Navarra wrote that the encierro officially inaugurated the new ring, with more than eight thousand people in the stands alone. The Casa de Misericordia built it in fourteen months, in reinforced concrete, for thirteen thousand spectators.3, 9

Where was Pamplona’s old bullring?

Pamplona’s old bullring stood behind the theatre, at the start of what is now avenida de Carlos III. Built in 1844 and rebuilt in 1852, it seated more than eight thousand people, and some twelve thousand squeezed into it for an encierro.9, 5

When were the bull runs of San Fermín 1922?

San Fermín 1922 had a bull run every morning at six from Friday, July 7, to Tuesday, July 11, 1922, with bulls of the heirs of Vicente Martínez, on the programme, Cándido Díaz, Villar Hermanos, Miura and the Conde de Santa Coloma.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8

How many people watched the running of the bulls in 1922?

The Diario de Navarra estimated no fewer than 17,000 people in Pamplona’s new bullring at the encierro of July 9, 1922; some 12,000 used to squeeze into the old ring.5

Did a bull escape in 1922?

The Santa Coloma bull Lucero jumped the parapet of the road into a tree on the bank of the Arga on the night of July 10, 1922, as the bulls were moved to the Rochapea corral. It was caught and brought into the ring at half past one in the morning, so only five bulls ran on July 11.7, 8

Who made the San Fermín 1922 poster?

J. Briñol made the San Fermín 1922 poster, signed on the poster itself: a black bull trotting across the cobbles of a Pamplona street while the runners scatter, one up a lamppost.12

Sources

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.

Full source list
  1. Diario de Navarra, July 5, 1922, page 1: bando of the mayor, Tomás Mata, the ring gate for the herd to open at 5:55 and to be used only by those running ahead, “para evitar que por desconocimiento de la nueva carrera ... ocurran accidentes”. Diario de Navarra archive
  2. Diario de Navarra, July 7, 1922, page 2: two reserve bulls of Díaz and half a dozen young bulls penned in the new ring two nights before, “el primer ganado que ha pisado y albergado la nueva plaza de toros”; programme for July 7, the encierro at six, with the bulls of the heirs of Vicente Martínez. Diario de Navarra archive
  3. Diario de Navarra, July 8, 1922, page 1: the encierro of July 7, “con el encierro de ayer se inauguró oficialmente la nueva plaza”; the three hurt. Diario de Navarra archive
  4. Diario de Navarra, July 9, 1922, page 1: the Díaz encierro of July 8, “hicieron el recorrido en menos de tres minutos”. Diario de Navarra archive
  5. Diario de Navarra, July 11, 1922, page 2: the encierro of July 9 (“anteayer”), “un gentío que no bajaría de 17.000 almas”, against 12,000 in the old ring; “El encierro de anteayer fueron los toros de los señores Villar Hermanos”. Diario de Navarra archive
  6. Diario de Navarra, July 11, 1922, page 2: the Miura encierro of July 10, “Los seis toros de Miura hicieron el recorrido completamente separados”. Diario de Navarra archive
  7. Diario de Navarra, July 11, 1922, page 1: “Un toro escapado recogido y encerrado”: the Santa Coloma bull Lucero, night of July 10. Diario de Navarra archive
  8. Diario de Navarra, July 12, 1922, page 1: the Santa Coloma encierro of July 11, “El encierro de ayer fué en extremo emocionante”. Diario de Navarra archive
  9. Ricardo Ollaquindía, 100 años de carteles de las fiestas y ferias de San Fermín (1882 to 1981), Pamplona, 1981, chapter “1922”. Free copy in the Biblioteca Navarra Digital (BiNaDi). binadi.navarra.es
  10. Fototeca de Pamplona, Archivo Municipal de Pamplona (photographs of the encierro, free to view online; publication needs the archive’s permission). archivo.pamplona.es
  11. Ricardo Ollaquindía, 100 años de carteles de las fiestas y ferias de San Fermín (1882 to 1981), Pamplona, 1981, chapter “1923”, on the back cover of the 1923 programme. Free copy in the Biblioteca Navarra Digital (BiNaDi). binadi.navarra.es
  12. The poster of the Fiestas y Ferias de San Fermín 1922 itself, signed J. Briñol.
How to cite this page

Encierro. “Running of the Bulls 1922: San Fermín in Pamplona.” Encierro.com, November 9, 2026. https://encierro.com/san-fermin-1922/

Corrections and updates
  • : questions and answers rewritten around what people search, each answer with its sources; the poster labelled with its Spanish name, cartel.
  • : page published.

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