If people know one thing about Pamplona (pop. 200,000), it’s the Running of the Bulls. If they know two things about Pamplona, it’s the Running of the Bulls and the Zearth-shattering week of partying that accompanies the former. Hemingway may have made this town famous in The Sun Also Rises, but Pamplona has had no trouble keeping itself in the headlines. The week of los Fermines fills the city to the gills with revelers, and the high demand leads to skyrocketing prices. Pamplona takes its name from the Roman general Pompey, who is said to have founded the town in the first century BCE, after which it grew and developed under the Romans and later the Visigoths. Despite its Roman history, though, Pamplona has a strong sense of its Basque heritage: almost all public signage in Pamplona (Iruña in Basque) is in both castellano and Basque (euskera in Basque). The heavily fortified Pamplona has been a border city since the eighth century, caught between various Iberian kingdoms, France, and Spain. Since the Middle Ages, the Camino de Santiago has connected Pamplona with the rest of Europe across the Pyrenees and has kept it economically and culturally prosperous. The casco antiguo and nearby areas are largely tourist-oriented, but are still heavily frequented by locals in the low season.