The Gayarre Theater and Hemingway

When Hemingway first visited the Plaza del Castillo the square was completely enclosed. In ‘Death in the Afternoon’ (1932) he complains that the Gayarre Theatre had been moved from its former location (in 1931 it was moved from Plaza del Castillo to Avenida de Carlos III): “Pamplona has changed a lot; they have built new apartment buildings across the flat expanse that went to the edges of the plateau, so that now the mountains can no longer be seen. They have knocked down old Gayarre Theatre and damaged the square to open a wide street leading the bull ring ”.

The history of the Gayarre Theatre dates back to 1841, when the Principal Theatre opened its doors in today’s Plaza del Castillo. The venue took on the name of the Roncal-born tenor singer Julián Gayarre in 1903. The theatre reopened its doors in its current location on 3 May 1932.