Calle 31 de Agosto (August 31st Street)

You are walking on the only street in the Old Town that survived the fire of eighteen thirteen. Every other building in the Parte Vieja was destroyed. This one street made it because the troops who burned everything else needed somewhere to sleep.

Here is what happened. In August of eighteen thirteen, Anglo-Portuguese soldiers fighting in the Peninsular War finally drove Napoleon's forces out of San Sebastian. You would think the locals would have been thrilled. Instead, the liberating army went on a rampage. They looted homes, assaulted residents, and set fire to the city. The burning started on August thirty-first and did not stop until September eighth, when the French garrison holed up in the hilltop fortress of La Mota finally surrendered. By then, San Sebastian was gone -- reduced to smoking rubble.

This street, originally called Calle Trinidad, was the one exception. The occupying soldiers kept it standing because they were using its buildings as quarters. When the city was rebuilt over the following decades, the street was renamed Thirty-first of August to permanently memorialize the date of the destruction. It is not a celebration. It is a scar.

The houses you see along here are the oldest surviving structures in the entire city of Donostia. Some of the stone facades date back centuries. Today the street is lined with pintxo bars, wine shops, and the Basilica of Santa Maria at one end. Tourists walk through and think it is just another charming old street. But the name is a message -- a city naming a street after the worst day in its history so nobody ever forgets what happened. That is about as Basque as it gets.