I am Peio and this is a web page about the "Alarde" of Irún:

This is the coat of arms of Irún:

Click here for photos of the most popular party in Irún

Irún is a little city that is in Guipuzcoa in Spain. In Irún there are some churches but the more important is one called the church of Juncal and there is inside a statue that is 750 years old more or less.

This is a picture from Irún long time ago.

Click here for more pictures

Now I am going to talk about some history of this place:

A long time ago Irún was a very important place for solders to cross from France to Spain because in the other side were some mountains called the Pyrenees and Irún was for the king of Castilla because he didn´t ask for taxes. So the king of Navarra wanted Irun so they paid some French people to attack Irún. But the people of Irún had a plan that was like this:

1) The men went to San Marcial mountain and the women and children went to Oyarzun at the night with torches making like they were going away.

2) When the French people went there they drank a lot of alcohol because they thought they won until they got drunk Then the men of Irún went downhill and won the battle because the French were drunk.

Then year after year the king of Castilla made an alarde in that day to be prepared if somebody attacked Irún, this is why in Irún there is an alarde the 30th of June; "San Marcial" day. Before there were only gunmen, but now there is music, gunmen and a lot of more things.

Here there is a photo the "Alarde" of Irún lots of years ago:

And here there is one of the new alarde:

Click here to see what activities are in the "Alarde"

But now there are some women that want to go in the "Alarde" and now there are two "Alardes":

-Traditional alarde (traditional (men))

-Official alarde (women)

Click here for more information