A bullring is an arena where bullfighting is performed. Bullrings are often associated with the Iberian Peninsula, but they can also be found through Iberian America and in a few Spanish and Portuguese ex-colonies in Africa. Bullrings are often historic and culturally significant centres that bear many structural similarities to the Roman amphitheatre.
The Plaza de Toros de Ronda is a Bullring in Ronda, it has a diameter of 66 metres (217 ft), surrounded by a passage formed by two rings of stone. There are two layers of seating, each with five raised rows and 136 pillars that make up 68 arches. The Royal Box has a sloping roof covered in Arabic tiles. The design of the main entrance to the bull ring features two Tuscan columns and the royal shield of Spain surround by baroque edging. The main door is large enough to allow horses and carriages to enter the ring, and above the door is an iron wrought balcony that embodies the bullfighting culture.
The Plaza de toros Nuevo Progreso is a bullring in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco. It is currently used for bull fighting and also for hosting musical events, and professional wrestling events. The bullring holds 16,561 people and was built in 1966 to 1967.
Spanish-style bullfighting is a type of bullfighting that is practiced in several Spanish-speaking countries: Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, as well as in parts of southern France and Portugal. In Colombia it has been outlawed but is being phased out with a full ban coming in effect in 2027. This style of bullfighting involves a physical contest with humans attempting to publicly subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull. The most common bull used is the Spanish Fighting Bull, a type of cattle native to the Iberian Peninsula. This style of bullfighting is seen to be both a sport and performance art. The red colour of the cape is a matter of tradition – bulls are color blind. They attack moving objects; the brightly-colored cape is used to mask blood stains.
The course landaise is an ancient form of bullfighting and bull-leaping held in oval or rectangular arenas covered in sand, that involves no bloodshed. Experienced cows, with large horns, aged generally from 2 to 14 years old, are used instead of bulls. They are athletic but small animals selected from the same breed as the bulls used for the Spanish corridas. In Gascony, it is a major spectator sport, counting as many as 600 events each year.
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations.
The Plaza de Toros de La Merced is a bullring in the Andalusian city of Huelva, Spain. The current building, which was reinaugurated in 1984 after being rehabilitated by architect Luis Marquínez, is an updated version of an old bullring, built in the years 1899 to 1902 and designed by architect Trinidad Gallego y Díaz. For years, it stood empty as bullfights were instead held at another, newer bullring that eventually had to fall to the wrecker's ball when it turned out to be unsafe. In its more than one hundred years of existence, the Merced bullring has borne witness to not only authentic glory in the Bull Festival, but also to the bullfighting figures from all eras who have filed through it. The rehabilitated bullring's foreseen capacity was 10,000, but its actual current capacity is 7,127.
The Brava or Race de Combat is a French breed of domestic cattle raised in the Camargue, the delta of the Rhône in southern France. It is bred specifically for bull-fighting, either Spanish-style or Portuguese-style. It is one of two cattle breeds raised in semi-feral conditions in the Camargue: the other is the Raço di Biòu or Camargue breed, which is not a fighting breed but is used in a bloodless bull-sport, the course camarguaise. The Brava derives from Iberian fighting cattle imported in the nineteenth century, and may also be known as the Espagnole Brava.
Miguel Báez Espuny, better known as "El Litri", was a Spanish bullfighter, a descendant of one of Huelva's foremost bullfighting dynasties.
Victorino Martín Andrés was a Spanish fighting bull cattle rancher. He was born in Galapagar, 33 kilometers from the city of Madrid. The livestock of which he was owner was founded on 29 May 1919 and, together with Duke of Veragua and Miura is one of the most notable in the history of bullfighting in Spain.
Pablo Lozano Martín, commonly known as La Muleta de Castilla, was a Spanish bullfighter and fighting bull cattle rancher, owner of cattle raising Alcurrucén and "Hermanos Lozano".
The Plaza de Toros de Pontevedra (Spain) is the bullring of the Spanish city of Pontevedra and the only one in the autonomous community of Galicia. It has a capacity of 7,800 spectators and is classified as the second category of Spanish bullring. The current bullring replaced a wooden one dating from 1892, although the tradition of bullfighting in Pontevedra dates back to the 17th century.
José Gallego Mateo, known as Pepete III, was a Spanish matador.
Antonio Mejías Jiménez, better known as Antonio Bienvenida, was a Venezuelan-born Spanish bullfighter who belonged to the Bienvenida bullfighting dynasty. Eleven times he came out, borne on his fellow bullfighters' shoulders, through the Great Gate at Las Ventas as one of the most important bullfighting figures of the 1950s. Among bullfighting aficionados, the Bienvenida dynasty has been one of the most glorious in tauromachy's history. It was founded by Manuel Mejías Rapela Bienvenida, nicknamed "El Papa Negro", itself a nickname for the superior general of the Society of Jesus, and in this case, it was meant to distinguish him from the head of the bullfighting "church", Ricardo Torres Reina "Bombita".
José Luis Vázquez Garcés, better known as Pepe Luis Vázquez, the same name that his son would later use professionally, was a Spanish bullfighter, considered one of 20th-century bullfighting's most significant figures.
José Luis Vázquez Silva, better known as Pepe Luis Vázquez, the same name that his father had used professionally, was a Spanish bullfighter, the youngest in a bullfighting "dynasty" in Seville that stretches back to the nineteenth century.
Marta Martina García was a 19th-century Spanish bullfighter known as "Lagartijo mujeril" or "La Martina". She dominated all types of bullfighting, and stood out for being one of the few women bullfighters in her time who fought bulls alongside men. Antonio García-Ramos y Vázquez in Veinte temas taurinos writes that Francisco Arjona Herrera, known as "Cúchares", stands out among them.
Andrés Mazariegos Vázquez, known professionally as Andrés Vázquez "El Nono", was a Spanish bullfighter. Among his influences in tauromachy were Juan Belmonte, Domingo Ortega and Antonio Bienvenida. He was awarded the Order of Beneficence in 1975, and ten times he came out of the Great Gate at Las Ventas. He had great success fighting bulls from the Victorino ranch.
Ángel Teruel Peñalver, professionally known as Ángel Teruel, was a Spanish bullfighter, the star of the escalafón taurino in the 1960s and early 1970s.
José María Dols Samper, also known professionally as José Mari Manzanares hijo is a Spanish bullfighter and model. He has twice been borne shoulder-high out through the Great Gate at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid.
