San Fermín 1968: The Running of the Bulls
July 6 to 14, 1968. On the opening day of the fiesta, Mary Welsh Hemingway attends the unveiling of a bronze monument to her husband near the bullring. A permanent memorial to the writer who made San Fermín world-famous.
Curated by Dennis Clancey
· Founder of Encierro, veteran bull runner
0
Encierro Deaths
1968
Year
6 July
Monument Unveiled
7 a.m.
Run Time
Looking Back at 1968
Dennis Clancey · Founder, Encierro
Looking back at 1968, the day that stands out is not a run day at all, it is July 6, the chupinazo day, when Mary Welsh Hemingway stood at the ceremony for the inauguration of a bust of her husband on the Paseo Hemingway near the bullring. Hemingway had been dead seven years by then. Pamplona was putting him in stone.
What interests me about 1968 as a moment in the fiesta’s history is the way it formalized something that had been informal. For years the connection between Hemingway and San Fermín was literary, cultural, a matter of readers finding the fiesta through his pages. The monument transformed that connection into civic infrastructure. Hemingway was now part of the fabric of the place in the same way the walls of the old city or the route of the encierro were. The fiesta had absorbed him.
On the street, the run kept its hour: seven in the morning, every day from July 7 to July 14. No one died in the 1968 encierros.
Dennis Clancey, Founder, Encierro
1968 in contextHemingway in Bronze
The 1968 fiesta opened on July 6 and ran through July 14, with the encierros at 7 a.m. The defining event of the fiesta year was the inauguration, on the opening day of the festival, of a bronze bust of Ernest Hemingway on the Paseo Hemingway near the bullring. Hemingway’s widow, Mary Welsh Hemingway, attended the ceremony.
On the day the chupinazo fired in 1968, Hemingway’s widow was in Pamplona to see her husband immortalised in bronze. The man who made the fiesta world-famous was now part of its permanent architecture.Morning by morning
Every 1968 Encierro, Day by Day
The route runs 848.6 metres from Santo Domingo to the bullring. See the route map.
Sun July 7 · First run
Run 1, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 7
1968
The footage above is an archival 1968 encierro compilation (Retroclips channel).
Mon July 8 · Second run
Run 2, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 8
A second archival NODO footage compilation is available above (Pachi Mendiburu channel).
Tue July 9 · Third run
Run 3, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 9
Wed July 10 · Fourth run
Run 4, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 10
Thu July 11 · Fifth run
Run 5, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 11
Fri July 12 · Sixth run
Run 6, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 12
Sat July 13 · Seventh run
Run 7, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 13
Sun July 14 · Eighth run
Run 8, Ganadería Not Recorded
July 14
The Stories the Numbers Leave Out
The monument
Hemingway in Bronze: July 6, 1968
On the opening day of the 1968 fiesta, the same day the chupinazo fired in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, a bronze bust of Ernest Hemingway was inaugurated at 1 p.m. on the Paseo Hemingway near the bullring. Hemingway’s widow Mary Welsh Hemingway was present. Hemingway had first come to Pamplona in 1923; his association with the fiesta had shaped its global identity for four decades. Now it was made permanent in stone.
The runs
Eight Mornings at Seven
The 1968 encierros ran each morning at 7 a.m., July 7 to 14, as they had every year since 1924. Two archival compilations of the runs, one of them NODO newsreel footage, are linked in the run cards above. No one died in the 1968 encierros.
Official Poster, 1968San Fermín 1968: Official Cartel
Cartel: Fernando Galle.
The 1968 San Fermín poster was the work of Fernando Galle, who also designed the 1967 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.
Beyond the runThe City in 1968
The chupinazo opened the fiesta at noon on Saturday, July 6, the same day as the Hemingway monument inauguration. Encierros followed at 7 a.m. through July 14.
The fiesta closed at midnight on July 14 with the Pobre de Mí.
The recordHow 1968 Came Together
1968
The cartel by Fernando Galle confirmed.
6 July 1968
The chupinazo opens the 1968 fiesta at noon. On the same day, the Hemingway monument is inaugurated near the bullring. His widow Mary Welsh Hemingway attends.
7 to 14 July 1968
Encierros at 7 a.m. No encierro deaths.
14 July 1968
The final encierro completes the 1968 fiesta. At midnight, the Pobre de Mí closes the celebration.
San Fermín 1968, Answered
Was anyone killed in the 1968 encierros?
No. There were no deaths in the 1968 encierros.
When was the Hemingway monument inaugurated in Pamplona?
The bronze bust of Ernest Hemingway was inaugurated on July 6, 1968, the opening day of the fiesta, the day of the chupinazo. Hemingway’s widow Mary Welsh Hemingway attended the ceremony. The bust stands on the Paseo Hemingway near the bullring.
What time did the encierros run in 1968?
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.
- 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
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Hemingway Memorial". pamplona.es
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Carteles de San Fermín (cartel archive)". pamplona.es
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "The Encierro and Hemingway". pamplona.es
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Ruta Hemingway". pamplona.es
What came next
For what followed, see San Fermín 1969, the year Hilario Pardo Simón died in the encierro, or explore the full 1960s archive.