Real Plaza de Toros

Description

VISIT HOURS
Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 to 14:00 h. / 17:00 to 19:00 h.
Saturday: 10:00 to 14:00

PRICE
Guided visits 6€. Whithout a guide 4€. (Special group reductions). Please consults.

The Royal Bullring

The bullfighting tradition of El Puerto de Santa María, is one of the strongest and deeply rooted in Spain. The interest of the whole region, and more so of the main towns of lower Andalucía seem to shake in joyful emotion of anticipated pleasure, when the clear white surface of some of their walls is covered by the scream of colour of the poster that announces like a cry: Bullfights in El Puerto!

The Bullring
“By saying bullfight in El Puerto,
everything is said.
That is what Joselito said
in this Bullring”
(“Sevillana” song from “Los del Carmen”)

Tradition
Because to go to the bullfights in El Puerto is something more, much more than attending a good bullfight. Joselito was right when he said that famous sentence which is immortalised in colourful tiles in the main door of the Bullring: "He who has not seen a bullfight in El Puerto, doesn't really know what a day at a bullfight is". A day at a bullfight, a cheerful day full of appeal and attractions, before and after the event. And, in between, those two hours of witnessing the daring game of death on the yellow earth of an arena impregnated with salty aromas and caressed by the gusts of the seafaring winds.


El Puerto de Santa Maria has an old prestige for bullfights. Already before the times of Pepe-Hillo or Pedro Romero from Ronda, it had well rooted its fame for bullfighting in our city: that old bullring in Galeras square which replaced the older one of scaffoldings in Polvorista square and that was an advance of wooden bullrings in the same place where today we find the stone, iron and brick bullring, built at the end of the nineteenth century; one of the most beautiful bullrings in all of Spain.


Architecture and Constructione

The building is a regular polygon of 60 sides, with a diameter of 99,80 meters; this surface area is distributed as follows; an external gallery, above a second and third gallery where the royal and the presidential boxes are found and the covered stands, also the 16 stone seated sections known as "Tendidos"; it has a capacity for over twelve thousand people. The arena is 60 meters in diameter - one of the widest that exists - it is separated from the public by a two meter alley with a barrier. But these dimensions are not the most important thing that can be highlighted; it should be that bright colourful gaiety, that magic or enchanting quality that gives that architectural grace to the bullfighting festivities and a special air to the city.


The management of its construction was carried out by the "Bullring Company", presided over by D. Tomás Osborne and Bölh de Faber - descendant of the family of " Fernán-Caballero ", the illustrious writer. To mark the centenary celebrations of the bullring, another ceramic tile was placed in front of the one that reminds us of the unforgettable sentence of Joselito "El Gallo" .

It was inaugurated on the 5th and 6th of June 1880 with two bullfights in which Antonio Carmona Gordito, of Seville, and the Cordovan Rafael Molina Lagartijo, fought bulls from the ranch of Anastasio Martín and of Saltillo. " Bordador ", was the name of the first bull that was fought in the bullring, and its crowned head can still be seen in the Reception Room.


Figures of bullfighting
Since then, few important bullfighting figures have not pass through this bullring of such renowned fame, and which has been witness to such fierce rivalry between " lagartijistas " and " frascuelistas ", of the manliness of D. Luis Mazzantini and the dignity of "Hermosilla" from Sanlúcar the indescribable days of " Guerrita" a bullfighter without rivals; the bullring entered into the new century with " Machaquito " and "El Bomba"; that commemorated in 1912, with a solemn regal bullfight, the First centennial of the Parliament of Cadiz; that admired the wise bullfighting of the great Joselito and it exploded with emotion before Juan Belmonte's tight movements with the cape... and later, Manolete "El Monstruo"; " Ordóñez", "Vázquez", "Bienvenidas", the long bullfighting of "Dominguín", the revolution of "El Cordobés".


To commemorate the inauguration of the Royal Box by HRM Juan Carlos I, a ceramic tile was placed in the entrance corridor with the following text: “On the 2nd of August 1998, HRM Juan Carlos I honoured with his presence this Bullring and inaugurated the Royal Box, being Mr Hernán Díaz Cortés the Town Mayor. The “Jandilla” bulls were fought by Emilio Muñoz, Miguel Báez Litri and Manuel Díaz “El Cordobés””.


Every period in the history of bullfighting, all the passionate rivalry that has established the classic Spanish dualism, have been celebrated in the bullring of El Puerto. For that reason, to tell the history of bullfighting in the bullring, is like offering a view of what has been through the years, the history of the so called National Festivity/ Sport – bullfighting. It is to offer, in a transparent sherry glass from El Puerto, a fragrant glass of Spanish wine.

Contact

Tel: +34 856 600 010
Fax: +34 956 483 727
@: turismo@elpuertodesantamaria.es
Website: http://www.plazadetorospuertodesantamaria.com

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