Located in the heart of San Sebastián’s Romantic Area, San Martin Market forms part of the city’s everyday identity. More than a place of just excellent food products, this market is a setting where local identity is expressed not only through its products, but also through the relationships built around them.

© Aitor Estevez

San Martín Market, in Donostia/San Sebastián, is a historic indoor market dating back to 1884. After a recent renovation, the market now features a modern two-floor layout combining traditional food stalls with gourmet shops, a supermarket, cafés and bars, making it an essential destination for food lovers exploring Basque cuisine. The city itself is well-known throughout Europe for its gastronomy, particularly its small sandwiches known as pintxo, and high concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants.

The recent market renovation was designed by El Equipo Creativo, a renowned interior architecture and design studio based in Barcelona and specializing in innovative designs for the hospitality sector, including restaurants and hotels. The owners of San Martin Market wanted to recover the essential character of the market as a vibrant urban space deeply connected to the Basque community.

For visitors to San Martin Market, there are numerous opportunities to taste some of the fresh and delicious food products, including a wide array of Basque cheeses, seafood, cured meats, gourmet sardines and pintxo.

The first objective of the redesign was to highlight local products to their customers. The architecture is conceived as a quiet backdrop that supports without competing, using locally sourced materials like wood, stone and iron, which bring texture, warmth and a timeless identity.  A restrained and natural color palette enhances the presence of fresh products, creating a welcoming, approachable and clearly recognizable environment.

The market is organized across two levels, each offering a distinct program: The ground floor brings together produce from the land and butcher shops, while the basement level is dedicated to fishmongers.

The design expresses this duality through different materials and formal languages in showcases, counter fronts and suspended ceiling elements, evoking the worlds of field and sea.

On the ground floor, the design reflects an agricultural tradition — the idea of bringing produce from the land closer to the consumer. The space is inspired by the rural landscape and incorporates references to woven baskets historically linked to harvesting.

© Aitor Estevez

On the basement level, products are linked to the sea and port activity, establishing a distinct identity. The ceiling design references the crates traditionally used for transporting fish, while the finishes evoke the structure of wooden boats and fishing nets. Turquoise and green tones recall the Cantabrian Sea, creating a fresh, luminous and evocative environment.

The design of the market incorporates the possibility of tasting market products, either at the stalls or in a central ground-floor area. This strategy responds to the project’s second key objective: reinforcing the market as a social space within the neighborhood, where value lies not only in buying, but also in everything that happens around that action.

The central ground floor plays a key role in the market. In the morning, it is occupied by the caseras, a traditional term referring to the people who bring fresh produce from local farmhouses (caseríos) into the city, keeping a deeply rooted tradition alive. In the afternoon, the same tables become shared seating where visitors can enjoy market products. This flexibility extends the space’s use, broadens its social hours and attracts new audiences, integrating different ways of inhabiting the market in one place.

© Aitor Estevez

For many local residents, the daily visit to the market is a ritual of encounter, conversation and belonging.

Another key aspect of the project is its relationship with the outside. The introduction of new openings in the façade allows natural light to enter the market and establishes a more direct visual connection between the interior and the surrounding urban environment.

The project has strengthened the market’s urban presence through a new canopy and a more visible entrance, consolidating it as a reference point within the neighborhood. The addition of perimeter spaces with terraces allows the market’s activity to extend into the public realm.

The result is a market that enhances its essence while projecting it into the future: a warm, welcoming urban space where local produce, architecture and everyday life come together to create new forms of encounter.