rea, the Old Part, oozes neoclassical, austere and systematic style in its architectural construction. The Constitution Square was built in 1817 and the town hall (current library) between 1828 and 1832. Housing works were carried out gradually during various decades until they were achieved.
The liberal and bourgeois San Sebastián became capital of Gipuzkoa (at the expense of Tolosa) until 1823, when absolutists assailed the town again (only 200 inhabitants remained in town when the assaulting troops broke in), but it was made capital city again in 1854. In 1833, British volunteers under Sir George de Lacy Evans defended the town against Carlist attack, and their fallen were buried at the "English Cemetery" on the hill Urgull.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the local government was still ruled on the principle of nobility, while the inhabitants of foreign origin or descent had always been ubiquitous in the town, especially the traders. Although San Sebastián benefited greatly from the charts system established in the Basque Country (foruak, with borders in the Ebro river and no duties for overseas goods), the town was at odds with the more traditional Gipuzkoa, even requesting the detachment from the province and the annexation to Navarre in 1841.
In 1863, the defensive walls of the town were demolished (their remains are visible in the underground car-park at the Boulevard) and an expansion of the town began in an attempt to escape the military function it had held before. Works were appointed to Jose Goicoa and Ramon Cortazar, who modeled the new city according to an orthogonal shape much in a neoclassical Parisian style, and the former designed elegant buildings, like the Miramar Palace, or the Concha Promenade. The city was chosen by the Spanish monarchy to spend the summer following the French example of the near Biarritz. Subsequently the Spanish nobility and the diplomatic corps opened residences in the summer capital. As the
