San Fermín 1967: The Running of the Bulls
July 6 to 14, 1967. Rafael Moneo’s project expands the bullring to 19,700 seats. The fiesta’s infrastructure scales to match the crowd.
Curated by Dennis Clancey
· Founder of Encierro, veteran bull runner
0
Encierro Deaths
1967
Year
19,700
Bullring Seats
7 a.m.
Run Time
Looking Back at 1967
Dennis Clancey · Founder, Encierro
Looking back at 1967, the most significant change to the San Fermín infrastructure in the entire decade was undertaken: Rafael Moneo’s expansion of the plaza de toros to 19,700 seats. Moneo was a young architect then, he was born in 1937 and would go on to win the Pritzker Prize in 1996 and become one of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century. In 1967, in Pamplona, he was building a bullring. It is worth holding both facts together.
The expansion changed the encierro in a concrete way. The moment the runners and bulls enter the ring, coming through the tunnel from Calle Estafeta and emerging into the sun, is the climax of every run. A crowd of 19,700 watching that moment is a qualitatively different experience from a ring with 6,000 fewer seats. The roar is different. The weight of attention is different. Every runner who has run into that ring since the expansion has run into a larger, louder space than the one that existed before.
No deaths in the encierros, the encierro at seven in the morning, and the whole city arriving in September to watch Osasuna open the new Estadio de El Sadar. A year of buildings going up.
Dennis Clancey, Founder, Encierro
1967 in contextA Bullring Made for the World
The 1967 fiesta opened on July 6 at noon with the chupinazo and ran through July 14, with the encierros at 7 a.m. The defining event of the year was the expanded plaza de toros, designed by Rafael Moneo, a project begun in 1967 that added 6,000 seats for 19,700 in all.
A 30-year-old architect named Rafael Moneo expanded the bullring. Every runner who has entered that ring since 1967 has done so to a larger crowd and a louder roar than anyone who ran before 1967 ever experienced.Morning by morning
Every 1967 Encierro, Day by Day
The route runs 848.6 metres from Santo Domingo to the bullring. See the route map.
Fri July 7 · First run
Fermín Bohórquez
July 7
1967
The footage above is an archival encierro compilation from 1967 (Encierros San Fermín channel).
Sat July 8 · Second run
Manuel Arranz
July 8
A second archival footage compilation is available above (DiFilm channel).
Sun July 9 · Third run
Coimbra
July 9
Only four of the six announced Coimbra bulls from Portugal were fought that afternoon; substitutes completed the corrida.
Mon July 10 · Fourth run
César Moreno
July 10
Tue July 11 · Fifth run
Conde de la Corte
July 11
Wed July 12 · Sixth run
Antonio Martínez Elizondo
July 12
Thu July 13 · Seventh run
Juan Pedro Domecq
July 13
Fri July 14 · Eighth run
Antonio Ordóñez
July 14
The Stories the Numbers Leave Out
The bullring
Rafael Moneo and the New Plaza de Toros
Designed by Rafael Moneo, who would go on to win the Pritzker Prize in 1996, the expanded ring held 19,700 spectators.
Osasuna
The New Estadio de El Sadar Opens in September
In September 1967, Club Atlético Osasuna inaugurated the Estadio de El Sadar, the football ground that the club still occupies today. Pamplona in 1967 was a city building for growth: the bullring was being expanded, and the football stadium opened on 2 September.
Official Poster of San Fermín 1967
Cartel: Fernando Galle.
The 1967 San Fermín poster was the work of Fernando Galle, who also designed the 1968 cartel. The poster was produced for the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona ahead of the July fiesta.
The full archive of San Fermín official posters is maintained by the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, cartel archive.
The official San Fermín 1967 poster.
Beyond the runThe City in 1967
The chupinazo opened the fiesta at noon on Thursday, July 6. Encierros followed at 7 a.m. through July 14.
The fiesta closed at midnight on July 14 with the Pobre de Mí. On 2 September, Osasuna would open the Estadio de El Sadar. 1967 was a year in which Pamplona built its way into a larger future, one structure at a time.
The recordHow 1967 Came Together
1967
The cartel by Fernando Galle confirmed. Rafael Moneo’s expansion of the plaza de toros to 19,700 seats undertaken.
6 July 1967
The chupinazo opened the 1967 fiesta at noon in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento.
7 to 14 July 1967
Encierros at 7 a.m.. No encierro deaths.
14 July 1967
The final encierro completed the 1967 fiesta. At midnight, the Pobre de Mí closed the celebration.
San Fermín 1967, Answered
Was anyone killed in the 1967 encierros?
No. There were no deaths in the 1967 encierros.
What changed about the bullring for 1967?
A project by architect Rafael Moneo, begun in 1967, added 6,000 seats to the plaza de toros, for 19,700 in all.
What time did the encierros run in 1967?
7 a.m., as they had since 1924. The start time was not moved to 8 a.m. until 1974.
Sources
Every fact on this page is checked against these sources. Where sources disagreed, the one closest to the day won.
- Dialnet (José Mª Marco García Mina), "La Casa de Misericordia de Pamplona y su Plaza de Toros. Feria del Toro", 2020-06. dialnet.unirioja.es
- El Encierro (magazine) n56, via Dialnet, "Arquitecturas alrededor del encierro (Javier Torrens Alzu)", 2020-06. dialnet.unirioja.es
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Pamplona recordará a los 16 fallecidos en la historia del encierro con adoquines", 2023-12-27. pamplona.es
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "The Encierro (Bullrun)". pamplona.es
- The Pritzker Architecture Prize, "Rafael Moneo, 1996 Laureate". pritzkerprize.com
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Carteles de San Fermín (cartel archive)". pamplona.es
- CA Osasuna (official), "The story of El Sadar". osasuna.es
- ABC (Madrid), "page 80", 11 July 1967. hemerotecadigital.bne.es
What came next
For what followed, see San Fermín 1968, the year the Hemingway monument was unveiled on the first day of the fiesta, or explore the full 1960s archive.