San Sebastian, Monte Igueldo & Camino de Santiago

The neighbouring town of Donastia San Sebastian is the popular starting point of one of the Pilgrimage routes to Santiago. Traditionally the routes started at the pilgrim’s home and ended at Cape Finnesterre, Spain’s most westerly point. However this route is called the Camino de Santiago and follows the coast from San Sebastian along the Bay of Biscay until it reaches Santiago. Pilgrims who follow this and any other recognised route and can prove they have walked, cycled or travelled more than 200km are awarded a certificate (called a compostela) on arrival at the Pilgrims Office in Santiago. The pilgrim is asked to state whether their motivation for traveling the Camino was “religious”, “religious and other”, or “other”. In 2016, the number of pilgrims arriving in Santiago was recorded as 277,915!

San Sebastian is also home to a weird but wonderful ancient amusement park called Monte Igueldo, which began in 1911 as a social club that had been built on the top of a mount overlooking the town and it’s wonderful horseshoe shaped beach. It became an amusement park in the mid 1950’s, the original social club is now a hotel and the once derelict watch tower has been rebuilt to offer a 360 degree viewpoint over the surrounding coastline, bay and town.

The amusements were closed when we visited, they seemed to be run down and had a spooky air of desertion. The Tower, however, was something special. The inner staircase led up to the very top and the walls were full of old photographs from all eras showing bathers in the 1920’s, lifeguards in the 1930s, changes in the hillside houses over the years and several pictures of the three palaces dotted through the main affluent part of the town.

There is also a funicular railway from the Mount to the beach, again it was not running when we visited, but it is supposed to be the 3rd oldest funicular in Spain after being inaugurated in 1912. The beach is called La Concha and on low tide people can access the small island at it’s mouth.

We visited Miramar Palace, overlooking La Concha Bay, and had to admire the exterior only as the Palace is now a language and music school. The mansion was built in 1887, created to house the Spanish Royal Family when they decided to start spending their summers in San Sebastián. It was built in the Queen Anne English cottage style under the direction of the British architect Seldon Wornum, who also designed several mansions in Biarritz and Saint Jean de Luz nearby. It is built in brick and sandstone with timberwork and the landscaped gardens are open to the public.