San Fermín 1936 had six bull runs (encierros), every day from Tuesday, July 7, to Sunday, July 12, one of them added at the last moment; the programmes set them at seven. On the last, the Alaiza mayoral Moncayola drew a bull left in the ring into the corral with his smock held a palm from its horns. Writing years later, Ollaquindía noted that as the programme went out, other programmes were being prepared that would begin on the fiesta’s last day.2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 15
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The runs were every day from July 7 to 12: five programmed, and one “extraordinario y fuera de programa organizado a última hora”, extraordinary and out of programme, arranged at the last moment on July 10.2, 7 A bus company, La Aresoarra, ran special early services for the encierro, leaving Areso at half past four on July 7, 8 and 9, and on Sunday the 12th from Santesteban at four.1, 6
The herdsmen and steers of the Navarre ranch of Alaiza led the runs again; the paper printed verses to the Alaiza lead steer.4, 5 After the fiesta it was agreed to reward the herdsman Moncayola for his work in the ring during the encierros.12
| Date | Run | Ranch (ganadería) | What the paper reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 7 | 1 | Marqués de Albaida | First run at seven sharp |
| July 8 | 2 | Clemente Tassara | Under two minutes |
| July 9 | 3 | Antonio Escudero | Two encierros: a young bull lost in Estafeta |
| July 10 | 4 | Antonio Pérez de San Fernando | Extra run; a runner’s smock split in two |
| July 11 | 5 | Pérez T. Sanchón | Almost among family |
| July 12 | 6, last | Antonio Pérez de San Fernando | Moncayola and the bull left in the ring |
Run 1 of 6
With few outsiders but many locals and people from the neighbouring provinces filling the ring, “se verificó a las 7 en punto de la mañana el primer encierro”, the first encierro of the fiesta, at seven sharp, with the bulls of the Marqués de Albaida.2
Run 2 of 6
The programme set the encierro at seven.3 At seven sharp, without incident, the cattle of Clemente Tassara, formerly Parladé, “hizo el recorrido en menos de dos minutos”, ran the course in under two minutes, faster than any runner’s legs. The only ones ahead of the bulls were the Alaiza steers, which as the day before went in front knocking people over, with nothing worse than falls and frights. The bulls entered the ring bunched.4
Run 3 of 6
The young bulls were those of Antonio Escudero, formerly Argimiro Pérez Tabernero.13 In showery weather a big crowd came, and “en vez de uno se encontraron con dos encierros”: instead of one encierro they got two. A light chestnut young bull lagged in the Plaza Consistorial, went up Estafeta on its own and even turned back from the top, as if to say, the paper joked, this is too long and I am going back to my mother. The others went straight into the corral with the steers.5
Run 4 of 6, the extra
An encierro “extraordinario y fuera de programa organizado a última hora” was added at the last moment. Hardly anyone came from outside, and the ring at encierro time was the thinnest the paper had seen in many years. Four of the eight bulls for Sunday ran, half on each day, like mixing sherry and muscatel, the paper said; nothing happened in the ring and two small incidents on the course, one of them a runner run down in the Plaza Consistorial whose smock was split in two.7 The paper’s photograph of that moment called the bull an Albaida.8
Run 5 of 6
“A las 7 se verificará el encierro de los toros”, the programme said, with the bulls of Alipio Pérez T. Sanchón, of Salamanca.9 Storms on the Cantabrian coast kept many from Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia away, and “El encierro de los toros puede decirse que lo presenciamos en familia”: there were gaps in the stands and room to stand, and the runners went in ahead of the bulls without a crush; with so much room, more of them fell.10
Run 6 of 6, the last
By half past six the ring was full and the paid seats sold out, and from five minutes before the bulls were penned hundreds more came in through the encierro gate. The other four of the eight Salamanca bulls ran mixed in with packs of people, jumping over those who fell and butting their way through. One lagging bull stood in the ring; it could have swept away everyone around it, but Moncayola, the Alaiza mayoral, drew it into the corral, the bull following, fixed on, the smock he held a palm from its horns. Then came all the Alaiza padded-horn cows.11
Ollaquindía describes the 1936 poster: a bull about to catch a fallen mozo while another young man tries to draw it off, and above, the town hall clock showing the hour, seven in the morning.15 The runners wear white with red neckerchiefs and berets, in front of a crowned red shield, with a piper and fireworks at the top. The poster also promises “Emocionantes encierros”.14
He adds, in brackets, that 1936 is hard to put aside, and that when this programme went out others were being prepared that would begin precisely on the last day of the fiesta, which ended, as in other years, on July 18.15
Words of 1936
An extra run was “fuera de programa”, out of programme. A run watched by few was “en familia”, among family.7, 10
Photographs
The Diario de Navarra printed a photograph from the encierro of July 10, 1936, of a bull running down a runner at the entrance to the Plaza Consistorial, splitting his smock in two, with no harm done. The city’s photo archive, the Fototeca de Pamplona, holds historic photographs of the encierro, free to view online.8, 16
San Fermín 1936 had a bull run every morning from Tuesday, July 7, to Sunday, July 12, 1936: six runs, set for seven, including an extra encierro arranged at the last moment on July 10.2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
The extra encierro of July 10, 1936 was “extraordinario y fuera de programa organizado a última hora”, out of programme and arranged at the last moment: four of the eight bulls meant for Sunday ran that day, and the other four on Sunday, July 12.7, 11
Moncayola was the mayoral, or head herdsman, of the Navarre ranch of Alaiza, whose herdsmen and steers led the runs of 1936. On July 12, 1936 he drew a bull left in the ring into the corral with his smock held a palm from its horns, and it was agreed to reward him for his work in the ring during the encierros.4, 5, 11, 12
The Clemente Tassara bulls ran the course in under two minutes on July 8, 1936, faster than any runner’s legs, with only the Alaiza steers ahead of them, the Diario de Navarra reported.4
Urzanki made the San Fermín 1936 poster, signed on the poster itself: a bull about to catch a fallen runner while another young man tries to draw it off, below the town hall clock showing seven in the morning.14, 15
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 1936: San Fermín in Pamplona.” Encierro.com, November 9, 2026. https://encierro.com/san-fermin-1936/