Illumbe · Profile

In February 2025 San Sebastián City Council presented Illunbe Berria, a preliminary plan to turn the Illumbe bullring into a multipurpose arena for about 15,000 people. Only the round bullring itself, with about 3,000 seats, would be kept from the existing building. The venue, also known as Donostia Arena 2016, opened on 11 August 1998 on Paseo de Miramón, next to the Anoeta sports complex. It is owned by the city and classed as a first-category bullring. It holds almost 11,000 spectators across ten stands, and its retractable roof lets it host bullfights, basketball, concerts and other events all year round.

Earlier bullrings

Before Illumbe, San Sebastián had as many as twelve bullrings. The San Martín ring opened in 1851 with 8,000 seats and removable stands. In 1870 the city built a wooden amphitheatre for 9,000 spectators, which burned down in 1878. A final rebuild in iron and masonry in 1888 raised capacity to 10,000. In the twentieth century the El Chofre ring, between the Pasajes road and Zurriola beach, opened on 9 August 1903. That afternoon Mazzantini, Bomba, Montes and Lagartijo Chico fought nine Ibarra bulls.

A pillar-free roof spanning 100 metres

In 1995 the developers and architects of the new bullring asked Lanik, an engineering firm from Gipuzkoa, for a roof that could open and close. An earlier feasibility study had found that a retractable roof would make the project pay. The answer was the Ortz system, patented by engineers Juan Martínez Apeztegia, who led the technical work on the bullring, and Ignacio Odriozola. It is a space frame more than 100 metres in diameter that covers the ring and the stands without a single pillar. The roof weighs about 600 tonnes, and each of its moving sections about 60 tonnes. Eight gearboxes drive eight pinions in unison, and an electronic system takes its commands by radio.

The Semana Grande fair

Bullfighting at Illumbe centres on the Semana Grande, the city’s August festival. Outside the fair the ring has staged international contests for novice bullfighters and the traditional regatta bullfight. In August 2012 the mayor, Juan Karlos Izagirre of EH Bildu, said the council would not sign a new agreement with the promoters when the contract ran out, and there was no fair in 2013 or 2014. After a change of city government, the promoter Chopera rented the ring for bullfights from 13 to 16 August 2015. Former King Juan Carlos I attended one of them while anti-bullfighting protests took place outside. In November 2016 a clause in the complex’s management contract that banned shows involving cruelty to animals, bullfights included, was revoked.

Home of Gipuzkoa Basket

Gipuzkoa Basket moved to Illumbe in 2006 after winning the LEB with a perfect 7-0 playoff run that earned promotion to the Liga ACB, the Spanish top flight. The club stayed until 2016. Its best season was 2011-12: fifth in the regular season, a quarter-finalist at the 2012 Copa del Rey, where it lost to Caja Laboral, and a playoff team. It finished bottom in 2015-16 with seven wins. In July 2016 the board entered the team in LEB Oro, turned down an invitation to stay in the ACB and moved it back to the José Antonio Gasca sports hall. The 2017 LEB Oro title brought the team back to Illumbe and the ACB from 2017 to 2019. After another spell at Gasca, the club shared the 2020 LEB Oro title, won the Copa Princesa de Asturias and returned to Illumbe in 2020 for the 2020-21 ACB season.

Beyond bullfighting

The retractable roof opened the venue to events that have nothing to do with bullfighting. The arena has hosted concerts, freestyle motocross shows and recortadores, the Spanish bull-leaping contests. It has also staged bertsolaritza competitions, improvised verse sung in Basque, with a stage set up in the middle of the ring.

The Illunbe Berria plan

Mayor Eneko Goia and Councillor for the Economy Ane Oyarbide presented Illunbe Berria in February 2025. Besides the main arena for about 15,000 people, the plan includes a smaller sports hall for 2,500 to 3,000 spectators that would replace the Gasca hall. It also includes an underground car park for 1,000 vehicles, a park, an extension of the Miramón technology park, a new road access and a footbridge over the bypass. The preliminary plan budgeted 70 million euros for the project and set 2030 as the completion date, because Anoeta is due to host matches at that year’s football World Cup and the works could not overlap with the tournament.