49 Fun Facts About Bullfighting

Who is generally credited with introducing the practice of fighting bulls on foot, around 1726 in Ronda?

Francisco Romero turned the sport upside down: until then noblemen fought bulls from horseback with lances, and afterwards commoners on foot became the stars.

Which matador is credited with the modern bullfighting style of staying within centimetres of the bull?

Juan Belmonte stood almost motionless and let the horns pass within inches. Dodging on quick feet had been the standard, but after him standing still became every matador's aim.

In a traditional Spanish corrida, how are the six bulls shared out?

Three matadors, two bulls each. The bulls are paired off by drawing lots on the morning of the fight, and the most senior matador faces the first and fourth.

The bullfight is divided into stages known by what Spanish name?

Tercios, or thirds. A trumpet call opens each one, and in the last third trumpet warnings sound if the matador takes longer than ten minutes to kill the bull.

The matador's glittering costume is known as what?

Traje de luces means suit of lights. The knee-length trousers are cut skintight for a reason: no loose fold can snag on the bull's horns.

The large cape used in the first stage of a bullfight is which two colours?

Magenta and gold. The red cloth everyone pictures is a different, smaller cape that the matador picks up only for the final stage.

What is the mounted lancer in a bullfight called?

Picador. He lances the mound of muscle on the bull's neck so that the animal carries its head lower, which lets the matador reach over the horns at the end.

The padded covering that protects the lancer's horse is called what?

Peto. The mattress-like armour was made compulsory because charging bulls so often gored the picadors' unprotected horses.

What is marked on the sand to keep the mounted lancer back from the bull?

Circles. Two are marked on the sand: the lancer may not ride out past the outer one and the bull is set inside the inner one, so every charge has to cross open sand.

The barbed sticks planted into the bull's shoulders in the second stage are called what?

Banderillas, literally little flags, are decorated with coloured paper. Three pairs go in, and some matadors show off by planting their own.

The small red cloth used by the matador in the final stage is called what?

Muleta. Draped over a short stick, it is far smaller than the first-stage cape, so the bull's horns pass much closer to the matador's body.

Why does the bull charge the red cloth?

It reacts to the movement, not the colour: all cattle are colour-blind, and the cloth is thought to be red because that hides the bull's blood.

The killing thrust with the sword is known as what?

Estocada. To reach the spot between the shoulder blades the matador must lean in over the horns, leaving his own body open to the bull.

Which everyday English phrase began as the bullfighting term for the matador's final sword thrust?

The moment of truth. Ernest Hemingway carried it into English in 1932 by translating the Spanish el momento de la verdad.

The whole final performance with the red cloth, a linked dance of passes, is called what?

Faena. Before it starts the matador formally dedicates the bull, either to one person or to the whole crowd, and then works alone in the ring.

In bullfighting, how does the crowd ask the president to award an ear?

By waving white handkerchiefs. If most of the crowd joins in, the president must grant the first ear, but a second ear is his decision alone.

What is an indulto?

A pardon that spares the bull's life. The president signals it with an orange handkerchief, the matador only mimes the kill, and the bull goes back to the ranch to breed.

In bullfighting, the opening parade in which the participants salute the presiding dignitary is called what?

Paseíllo. Mounted bailiffs in period costume lead the matadors and their teams across the sand, and one of them then delivers the key to the bull pen.

The ceremony at which a bullfighter is formally promoted to full matador is called what?

Alternativa. In the ring, the most senior matador on the bill gives up his first bull to the newcomer and hands him the red cloth and sword to kill it with.

Which is the largest bullring in the world?

Plaza México, Mexico City. The sport's biggest arena is not in Spain at all: Las Ventas in Madrid, the largest ring there, holds many thousands fewer.

Manolete, the great matador of the 1940s, died in 1947 after being gored in which town?

Linares. Sharing the bill with his young rival Dominguín, Manolete was gored just as he drove in the sword, and his death at 30 shocked all of Spain.

Which carmaker named a 1968 model the Islero, after the bull that killed the matador Manolete?

Lamborghini. The company made a habit of bullfighting names, and its famous Miura is named after the Seville ranch whose fierce bulls included Islero.

Which acrobatic showman of the 1960s became the highest-paid matador of his day?

El Cordobés. Manuel Benítez was once locked up for jumping into bullrings uninvited, yet he went on to become the sport's biggest draw.

Until 1974, Spanish rules let women fight bulls only in which way?

On horseback. The star rider Conchita Cintrón defied the rule at her farewell fight in Jaén: she dismounted, caped the bull on foot and was arrested as she left the ring, then pardoned at once.

Cristina Sánchez, a star of the 1990s, was the first woman to do what?

Complete her alternativa in Europe, which she did in 1996. The Spanish pioneer Juanita Cruz, driven abroad by the Civil War, had taken hers in Mexico in 1940.

Which nickname did matador Juan José Padilla earn on returning after a 2011 goring cost him an eye?

The Pirate. Just five months after the goring he was back in the ring, fighting bulls with a patch over the lost eye.

A statue of which scientist stands outside Madrid's main bullring, for a discovery that saved many gored matadors?

Alexander Fleming. His penicillin made horn wounds far less likely to kill, so in 1964 a statue of him went up outside Las Ventas.

How does Portuguese bullfighting mainly differ from Spanish?

The bull is not killed in front of the audience. That spares the crowd, not the animal: once it has been led back to the pens, it is usually slaughtered out of sight.

In Portuguese bullfighting, what are the eight men who grab the bull bare-handed called?

Forcados. They face the bull in a single-file line, the front man takes the charge head-on, and the rest pile in to wrestle the animal to a standstill.

The Portuguese cavaleiro fights the bull from the back of which breed of horse?

Lusitano. The breed is named after Lusitania, the Roman province that took in most of modern Portugal, and the horses are specially trained to charge and dodge the bull.

In Portuguese bullfighting, what is usually done to the bull's horns beforehand?

Blunted or covered. The safety measure is said to date from the 1700s, when King Joseph I watched a marquis's son be killed by a bull in the ring.

In the French course camarguaise, what do participants try to snatch from the bull?

A rosette tied between its horns. The bulls are the real stars here: fans know the great ones by name, and it is the bull's name that headlines the poster.

The French course landaise differs from other bullfighting in that it uses what animals?

Cows. The men score by dodging the charging cow at the last possible moment or by leaping clean over her.

France's leading bullfighting venues include the ancient Roman arenas of Arles and which other city?

Nîmes. In the Middle Ages its amphitheatre was a fortified village, with houses and churches built inside the walls, before it was cleared and became an arena again.

The famous running of the bulls in Pamplona is part of a festival honouring whom?

Saint Fermin. Before each morning's run, the runners sing a short prayer to a small statue of him set into a wall on the route, asking for his protection.

What signals the start of Pamplona's morning bull run?

A rocket. A second one tells runners that all six bulls are loose in the streets, and more follow a few minutes later once the herd has reached the ring.

Which 1926 Hemingway novel helped make Pamplona's running of the bulls world famous?

The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway sent his hard-drinking expatriates from Paris to Pamplona's fiesta, and foreign visitors have been following them there ever since.

Who wrote The Story of Ferdinand (1936), about a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight?

Munro Leaf. Published weeks after the Spanish Civil War began, his gentle bull was read as pacifist propaganda, and the book did not appear in Spain until after Franco's death.

Which Spanish region's parliament voted in 2010 to ban bullfighting?

Catalonia. The ban took effect in 2012, but in 2016 Spain's Constitutional Court overturned it, ruling that a region may regulate bullfights but cannot outlaw them.

Bull-leaping is thought to have been a key ritual of which civilisation?

Minoan Crete. Palace frescoes at Knossos show young acrobats seizing a charging bull's horns and vaulting over its back.

Jallikattu, where participants cling to a running bull's hump, is a tradition of which Indian state?

Tamil Nadu. India's Supreme Court banned the sport in 2014, but after days of mass protests the state passed an emergency law in January 2017 to bring it back.

In Japanese bullfighting, togyu, what happens?

Two bulls lock horns until one gives up ground. It is nicknamed bull sumo, and each bull has a human handler at its side urging it on.

Which pope's 1567 bull De Salute Gregis banned bullfighting on pain of excommunication?

Pius V. The fights went on regardless, and within a decade his successor Gregory XIII had relaxed the ban for Spanish laymen.

Which South American country banned bullfighting shortly after independence in 1818, yet made rodeo a national sport?

Chile. In its rodeo, declared the national sport in 1962, a pair of riders drives a steer around the ring and pins it against a padded wall.

Who abolished bullfighting in Cuba in 1899?

The US military. The occupation authorities decreed an outright ban in 1899, the year after the war with Spain, and independent Cuba kept it in force from 1902.

Which South American country's Congress voted in 2024 to ban bullfighting nationwide from 2027?

Colombia. The law allows a three-year transition so that breeders, street vendors and others who live off the bullring can be helped into new work.

Which Spanish region was the first to ban bullfighting, in 1991, though it exempted cockfighting?

The Canary Islands. The 1991 law protects 'domestic animals', and some argue a fighting bull is not one, but no fight has been staged on the islands since the 1980s.

In California's bloodless bullfights, what holds the darts to the bull's back?

Velcro. California outlawed bullfighting in 1957 but exempts religious festivals, so Portuguese-American communities use Velcro-tipped darts that land on a pad on the bull's shoulders.

Which city symbolically declared itself an anti-bullfighting city in 2004?

Barcelona. The council's vote had no legal force, since only the regional government could outlaw bullfights, but it followed a petition of nearly 250,000 signatures.