Tabakalera

This guide to Tabakalera in San Sebastián takes its name from the Plaza de las Cigarreras outside, the square of the women cigarette makers who worked inside these walls by the thousand, in shifts that ran from 1913 until 2003. You'll hear about the scale of that single factory floor, the brands its workers rolled by hand and machine, and what it meant for one of the city's biggest employers to finally shut its doors. The guide follows the empty years afterward and the decision by the city, the province and the Basque government not to tear the building down. Stand facing the old brick facade and imagine the noise it once held.