Interesting places / The Historic Quarter Of Hondarribia

City: Hondarribia

Hondarribia was the second town in Guipuzcoa to receive the Charter in the year 1203 after San Sebastian and was the first to be founded by a Castilian king. Its strategic location, its importance as a fortified town and the development of its defence systems made this village, later a town, exceptional.
Already fortified in the Middle Ages, it would not reach its maximum splendour until the first years of the sixteenth century. Its important commercial and trading activities, along with its significant fishing activity, converted Hondarribia into one of the most important enclaves in Guipuzcoa.

Its history is marked by successive re-constructions due to fires, such as those that broke out in 1461 and 1498, and the different sieges to which is was submitted., of which those that caused most devastation happened in 1521, 1638, 1719 and 1794. This last one caused the partial destruction of its Renaissance fortifications and the final loss of its condition as a fortified town.

The fortified area contains a rectangular plan in a framework of cobbled streets marked by beautiful buildings with forged iron balconies and wide, carved eaves of great architectural beauty. On the top of the hill, next to the Plaza de Armas, Charles V’s castle rises up, built upon another medieval castle, traces of which can still be seen.

A few metres away is the parish church of Ntra. Sra. de la Asunción y del Manzano, a beautiful Gothic jewel.
The division of the plots of land into long narrow lots, typical of medieval town planning, and occasional changes have remained in the eastern part of the enclosure. In the western area, this type of division was lost as a result of buildings being constructed following the criteria of regionalist historicism in the treatment of facades applied by the architect, Manuel Manzano Monis.


More Information


Historical Monuments
Reservations and guided tours: Tourism Office. Calle Javier Ugarte, 6.
Tel. no.: + 34 943 64 54 58

Fax no.: + 34 943 64 54 66
E-Mail

Photo of The Historic Quarter Of Hondarribia

+