THE BULLRING

The Plaza de Toros (bullring) of the Real Maestranza is a unique listed monument and constitutes the principal tourist attraction in Ronda. Built of local sandstone the delicacy of line of the arched double gallery covering the entire public area recalls the circular patio of the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra and gives an air more reminiscent of a cloister than a place of public spectacle. The arena measures 66 metres in diameter, its circumference delimited by a twin stone wall ring around which runs a series of plain Tuscan columns forming some sixty arches of the public galleries which support the double roof tiled in the Moorish style. The elegance and sobriety of the interior space is unique and has been admired for over two centuries.

The ring is home to one of the most important events in the bullfighting calendar, the Corrida Goyesca (bullfight in the Goyaesque style), held in early September during the local festivities in honour of the great eighteenth-century bullfighter, Pedro Romero. The ring also hosts the annual exhibition of carriages and driving competition, attended by prize-winning collectors of horse carriages from all over Andalusia. The bullfight in Ronda has for years attracted personalities from the world of the arts. Antonio Ordóñez in particular brought to the fiesta admirers such as Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway, joined by numerous painters, architects and creative artists.