Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Fuerte de San Cristóbal (Alfonso XII), Ezkaba
Pamplona (Ansoáin/Ezcabarte) · Repression & memory site
The story
This 19th-century fort on the summit of Mount Ezkaba, above Pamplona, was used as a political prison in which about 2,500 Republican prisoners from across Spain were held in damp, overcrowded casemates. On 22 May 1938 prisoners overpowered guards and some 795 escaped in the largest prison break of the war. Without maps or support they were hunted down in the hills of Navarre: around 200 were killed, most of the rest recaptured, 14 later executed after court martial, and only three reached France. Scores more died of disease in the fort; many lie in the nearby 'bottle cemetery', where names were placed in bottles on the graves.
What you can see today
Huge moats, walls and casemate galleries on the summit; 360 m to the southeast the Cementerio de las botellas with memorial markers; road and hiking routes from Ansoáin, Artika and Berriozar.
Plan your visit
Walk or drive up (road closed to traffic at times); the fort interior is closed except on organised guided visits by the Navarre government/memory groups — check dates in advance. Allow 2 hours including the cemetery.
- Access
- Ministry of Defence property; no general visits
Checked September 2026 from official sources: defensa.gob.es. Things change, so check before you travel.
Sources
- mapcarta.com/W93052097
- mapcarta.com/W93052097
- mapcarta.com/W1460312975
- pamiela.com/index.php/colecciones/castellano/ensayo/jimeno-jurio/el-fuerte-de-san-crist%C3%B3bal-ezkaba,-lugar-de-la-memoria-1936-1945-detail
- senderismonavarra.blogspot.com/2018/05/ezkaba-san-cristobal-fuerte-alfonso-xii.html
Nearby sites
- Monumento a los Caídos, Pamplona · 6 km
- San Marcial hermitage & the Battle of Irun · 53 km
- Parque de la Memoria, Sartaguda · 61 km
- Intxorta front & Elgeta memory centre · 74 km
- La Barranca cemetery memorial, Lardero (La Rioja) · 82 km
- Otxandio – Andikona bombing memorial · 83 km
All 158 sites in Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 →
The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The battlefields, trenches, ruined villages, shelters, museums and memorials of the Spanish Civil War across the whole of Spain, told fairly from both sides.
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