Donostia-San Sebastián City Hall

This guide to Donostia-San Sebastián City Hall traces its start as the Gran Casino, opened in 1887 before three hundred shareholders and Queen Regent Maria Cristina, and its strange turn during the First World War when neutral Spain let enemies mingle at its card tables, with a French newspaper even placing Mata Hari among the crowd. You'll hear about the marble grand staircase built for evening-dress arrivals and the ballroom upstairs where diplomats and aristocrats danced while war burned across the continent. The guide follows the casino's fortunes after Spain's dictator banned gambling in 1924. Look up at the staircase as you listen, it once carried gamblers into the gilded rooms above.