Places

FEATURE: Fuerte de San Cristóbal

You can see it from any point in Pamplona, the mountain (called Ezcaba) on the North side of the city and the enormous Fuerte de San Cristóbal that crowns it.   A now deserted fort and prison, it has become a favorite haunt (the road up is a big make-out point) and party spot of locals for its maze of foreboding dark underground passageways and “secret” entrances.  Many other locals would just as soon forget about it.  If you are new to Pamplona, chances are you haven’t had the chance to explore it.  Put it at the top of your list and bring a flashlight.

The Fuerte de San Cristóbal is easily accessible from Pamplona by car or bike (a six km drive from the city), or by foot through many trails up the mountain.  It is worth the visit for the view alone.  The fort is officially closed, though there are ways to get in, at your own risk.

After the end of the Carlist Wars (in 1876), The Ciudadela of Pamplona was deemed unfit for the defense of the city in light of the new artillery of the age.  A better, more modern stronghold was needed and The Fuerte de San Cristóbal (officially called the Fuerte de Alonso XII on the entrance to the complex) was to be one of the most modern military fortresses of the time.

Extending over 600,000 square meters, surrounded by a  moat (making it impenetrable to an infantry attack) and built into the top of the mountain, no outsider is able to perceive of the size (or the depth) of the complex.  Buildings three stories high make up the interior galleries of the fort, hosting offices, kitchens, cell blocks, and even a church.

Construction began towards the end of the 19th century and finished 40 years after.  Ironically, such was the rate of technological development of the early 20th century that San Cristóbal became practically obsolete as a military fortress by the time it was ready.  Warfare had changed much in conjunction with the first World War, and with the launch of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, San Cristóbal would be needed for other purposes.  The fort was never actually used for defensive means.

Instead, San Cristóbal became a prison, a famous and controversial one which brought an interesting chapter from Spanish Civil War to Pamplona.  In the aftermath of the war, the prison still held inmates and political prisoners from all over Spain, and in less than humane conditions.  It is estimated that over 2000 individuals were imprisoned by the Nationalists during this period.

It was just after the Civial War that San Cristóbal was the scene of one of the most famous prison breaks in European history.  Inmates managed to overcome guards and escape from the fort during mealtime on May 22, 1938.  Their plan was executed almost perfectly, and more than a thousand inmates fled the prison into the surrounding forest and mountain.  However, one guard who lived in Pamplona ran into town to sound the alarm.  The army responded immediately with trucks and flood lights.  Many prisioners gave up escaping immediately but 795 individuals would try to evade the authorities.  Within days, the majority had been tracked and hunted down around the vicinity.  All were either arrested or shot (over 200 deaths reported, some still lay buried in unmarked graves on Ezcaba).  Months later, fugitives were still being picked up trying to escape into France.  Three prisioners were never found.

The unsanitary conditions eventually led to close of the prison in 1945, and San Cristóbal ceased to be of much use to the military (as other than a barracks) or to the authorities.  Since 1991, it has been left to deteriorate, abandoned except for the adventurous who have gained access through an “unofficial entrance” into the tunnels, galleries and cells (go find the passage over the water holding tanks underground, – shown above – absolutely pitch-black and very creepy).  Today, it has been named a “good of cultural interest”, though it is barely acknowledged in Pamplona; perhaps a way of forgetting about the checkered history of a relic so close to home.

• If your Spanish is up to it, there is a documentary on the prison, called Ezkaba, made up of interviews with ex-prisioners who talk about the conditions of the prison, the escape attempt, and the aftermath.