THE PRISON FORTRESS

Discover one of the most emblematic "places of memory" in Navarra.ALFONSO XII FortAlfonsoXII fort, also known as San Cristobal/ Ezcaba was built between 1877 and 1912.Initially they planned to build a castle on top of the mountain but finally it was not to be. The government of Navarre asked king Alfonso to build a fort on mount San Cristobal to defend the city alongside with the Citadel in Pamplona.It was one of the major engineering works at the time. However, when its construction was completed, it was already obsolete because military aviation had just appeared, and so it was used as a military prison.The fort had always belonged to the Ministry of Defence except during the second Republic period. When the Spanish Civil War started it was used as a prison for republicans.Today the fort doesn’t have a military function and it was abandoned in 1987. Currently the authorities are trying to share its use with other public entities so that this space can be reused.On 22 May 1938 the biggest escape ever in Europe and in the whole world took place. Do you want to find out more? Click on the links.