SAN SEBASTIAN, a city and seaport of Spain, awl capital of Gulps:moos, one of the Basque Provinces, is situated in 43' 19 N. lat., 2' W. long, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. The town is built on a low peninsula, or tongue of land, which is terminated by a rocky conical hill 400 feet high, and is tanked on tha east side by the manary of the small river Urinate, and on the west side by a boy which forms the harbour. The hill Is named Monte Urgull or Orgollo, and its summit is crowned by a fortified castle called La Mots, whence the bill is commonly called 11 Monte del Castillo. There are other defences on the slope of the bill, and the town lies at its southern bane. The land-front, 350 yards wide, stretches quite across the peninsula, and is defended by a solid rampart, strengthened by a lofty emanated bastion in the centre, and by a half-moon at each and. In front of the bastion is a horn-work. The narrowest part of the peninsula is still farther intent between the horn-work and the rocky ridge of San Bartolomeo, at the foot of which is the suburb of San Martin. The flanks of the town are protected by ramparts, one of which is washed by the sea in the harbour, and the other is 27 feet above the be) of the Uruinea, in which the tide rises about four feet. A long wooden bridge crosses the estuary of the Uvulae..
The town has been mostly rebuilt since the two sieges of 1813. The streets are wide and clean, and this houses generally good. Beeicloa the Plaza Nueva, which is a handsome square surrounded by elegant houses, there are other squares, several churches, and three or four civil and military hospitals. The population is about 13,000.
The harbour is small, but secure, and is defended by a mole, and by the small rocky island of Santa Oars at the entrance. There is a
good import trade in English and French goods, and an export trade in corn and other produce.
After the battle of Vitoria Wellington despatched Sir Thomas Graham to San Sebastian, which wu then defended by General Rey, and which had been held by the French from the year 1808. General Graham eanmwacsd the siege on the 10th of July, 1813, and assaulted the town on the night of the 21th, without success, and with the loss of more than 500 killed and wounded. The siege was then suspended for want of ammunition ; but after the defeat of Soult at the foot of the Pyrenees on the 31st of July, the siege was renewed, and con tinued till the 31st of August, when the place was stormed, and all the defences of the town were carried, but with the enormous loss of upwards of 2500 killed and wounded. The castle of La Mots held out till the 9th of September. In 1S23, when the French invaded Spain, to put down the constitutional government, they succeeded, after several assaults, in getting possession of San Sebastian by capitulation. Afterwards, during the Carlist insurrection in the northern provinces of Spain, it became the bead-quarters of the British auxiliary legion, under General Sir De Lacy Evans, who, in the summer of 1836, resisted several attacks of the Carlists, who occupied the neighbouring heights.
In the article BASQUE PitoviNcw, Tolosa is stated to be the capital of Guipuzeos, but since that article was written a decree of the Spanish government, dated August 21, 1S54, aunouuced that the city of San Sebastian was in future to bo the capital of Ouipuzcoa, as it had been from 1822 to 1844, when it was deprived of its title of capital, which was then conferred on Tolosa.