Plaza de la Constitución: San Sebastian Travel Guide (4.5★)

Numbers above the windows

Look up before you look for a bar. Above every balcony around the square, a number is painted on the facade. They date from the years when the plaza was used as a bullring: each balcony was rented out as a numbered box seat, and the numbers were never painted over.

The square you’re standing in is a rebuild. Allied troops burned most of the Old Town in 1813, and the plaza was laid out again afterwards as an enclosed neoclassical rectangle. It has uniform arcades at ground level and matching residential floors above.

The building with the clock

The facade at the head of the square has a clock and is the former town hall. The council later moved to the old casino building beside Alderdi Eder gardens, and this building now houses a municipal library. You can’t miss it, because it’s the only frontage that breaks the repeating line of balconies.

The ground floor is all arcade. That makes the square useful in Basque coastal weather: you can walk its whole perimeter under cover, and many of the arches lead straight into pintxo bars.

Drums at midnight

This is San Sebastian’s ceremonial square. At midnight on 19 January, the city flag is raised here to open the Tamborrada for the feast of San Sebastián on 20 January. Drum and barrel companies then play the march by Raimundo Sarriegui on and off through the city for 24 hours. The flag comes down here again at midnight on the 20th.

If you visit at that time of year, get to the square well before midnight. Outside the festival it’s a quieter stop than the beachfront, and a short walk from all of these:

• Basilica of Santa María del Coro, with its carved Baroque doorway facing Monte Urgull
• Church of San Vicente, the oldest church in the city
• Calle 31 de Agosto, the only street that survived the 1813 fire
• Mercado de la Bretxa, the market by the Boulevard
• La Concha beach and the port, both reached through the Old Town’s narrow lanes

Ordering pintxos under the arcades

In Basque the square is called Konstituzio Plaza. The bars on its edges work like the rest of the Parte Vieja:

• Cold pintxos sit on the counter. Ask for a plate, or point and ask before you take one.
• Hot pintxos are usually cooked to order from a list on a blackboard. Order them from the bar staff.
• Paying: you normally pay at the end. Tell the barman what you had and they’ll add it up.
• The rhythm: have one or two pintxos and a small drink in each bar, then move on. Locals call this a txikiteo.

Order a txakoli, the dry, slightly sparkling white wine from the Basque coast, or a zurito, which is a small beer. Tipping is modest and not expected the way it is in some countries. Each bar posts its prices on its own counter or board, so check there.

From the square, the Boulevard bus stops are a two-minute walk south. The main Renfe station is across the Urumea river, roughly a 15 to 20 minute walk. Half an hour is enough for the square itself. Give it a whole evening if you’re eating here.