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The bullring of Ronda

The Real Maestranza de Caballería, Ronda begging the permission of the arena in Bejar is the oldest bullring in Spain. Here modern bullfighting was born. Due to its beauty and historical legacy, this ancient plaza is one of the most precious stone treasures in the Ronda Mountains.

ORIGINS
The need to defend his territory obliged Felipe II to found, in 1572, La Real Maestranza de Caballería (Royal College of Horsemanship of Ronda). This body dedicated a space in the city to equestrian exercises, among which was as had been traditional in Spain since the Midle Ages, sports of skill with bulls.

One of these was "lancing bulls", in other words, killing them with lances which is, in its primitive form, what we now know as bullfighting. If the bull managed to gore the horse, the attendant had to come out to draw the bull away, using a rag to confuse the animal. One of these helpers, centuries later, was Francisco Romero Acevedo. Hethoughy a different version of the sport could be tried. There would be neither horse nor horseman. Just the attendant and the bull, face to face. He would fight it and kill it. He had invented bullfighting on foot.

THE BULLRING
The increasing popularity of bullfighting led the Real Maestranza de Caballeria De Ronda to built his famous Plaza, a work attributed to Martín Aldehuela, the same architect that had built the grandiose Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) over the Tajo of Ronda. The building of the Plazatook six years and it was inaugurated in 1785, with a bullfight that featured Pedro Romero y Pepe Hilo.

Conceived in sandstone, the nobility of its architectural shape, with its double gallery of arcades and absence of uncovered stands, gives it more that aura of a cloister than of a stadium buit for bulls shows, reminding one of the circular patio of the famous Carlos V Palace in Granada's Alhambra. Its 66metre diameter is encircled by a passage formed by two stone rings. The stands are two levels, with five terraced rows each and 136 columns forming 68 arcs of Tuscan Columns, with the exception of those of the Royal Box. Covered with a gabled roof in Arabic tiles, no other Plaza can compare with the elegance of its interior.