Bullfighting Trivia
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6correct to beat the crowd
49 free Bullfighting trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Bullfighting is one of the oldest, most ritualised and most argued-about spectacles in the world, and it comes with a vocabulary all its own. This quiz covers the corrida from Francisco Romero fighting on foot in Ronda around 1726, through Juan Belmonte's revolutionary style and Manolete's death at Linares, to Cristina Sánchez and the modern bans in Catalonia, Colombia and Mexico City. It explains the three tercios, the picador and the peto, banderillas, the muleta and the estocada, ears and tails, and the rare indulto that spares a brave bull. It also travels beyond Spain: the forcados and cavaleiros of Portugal, the rosette-snatching course camarguaise of southern France, the running of the bulls at Pamplona, jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, Japanese togyu, Ferdinand the Bull and Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon. There is a section on the sport's origins in Minoan bull-leaping and Roman games too. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has read Hemingway or watched San Fermin on the news, a third are medium and the rest are for true aficionados. Every answer is verified against reference pages and each question carries its source.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who is generally credited with introducing the practice of fighting bulls on foot, around 1726 in Ronda?
Francisco Romero
Francisco Romero turned the sport upside down: until then noblemen fought bulls from horseback with lances, and afterwards commoners on foot became the stars.
Q 02Which matador is credited with the modern bullfighting style of staying within centimetres of the bull?
Juan Belmonte
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.
Q 03In a traditional Spanish corrida, how are the six bulls shared out?
Three matadors, two bulls each
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.
Q 04The bullfight is divided into stages known by what Spanish name?
Tercios
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.
Q 05The matador's glittering costume is known as what?
Traje de luces
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.
Q 06The large cape used in the first stage of a bullfight is which two colours?
Magenta and gold
Magenta and gold. The red cloth everyone pictures is a different, smaller cape that the matador picks up only for the final stage.
Q 07What is the mounted lancer in a bullfight called?
Picador
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.
Q 08The padded covering that protects the lancer's horse is called what?
Peto
Peto. The mattress-like armour was made compulsory because charging bulls so often gored the picadors' unprotected horses.
Q 09What is marked on the sand to keep the mounted lancer back from the bull?
Circles
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.
Q 10The barbed sticks planted into the bull's shoulders in the second stage are called what?
Banderillas
Banderillas, literally little flags, are decorated with coloured paper. Three pairs go in, and some matadors show off by planting their own.
Q 11The small red cloth used by the matador in the final stage is called what?
Muleta
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.
Q 12Why does the bull charge the red cloth?
It reacts to the movement, not the colour
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.
Q 13The killing thrust with the sword is known as what?
Estocada
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.
Q 21Manolete, the great matador of the 1940s, died in 1947 after being gored in which town?
Linares
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.
Q 22Which carmaker named a 1968 model the Islero, after the bull that killed the matador Manolete?
Lamborghini
Lamborghini. The company made a habit of bullfighting names, and its famous Miura is named after the Seville ranch whose fierce bulls included Islero.
Q 23Which acrobatic showman of the 1960s became the highest-paid matador of his day?
El Cordobés
El Cordobés. Manuel Benítez was once locked up for jumping into bullrings uninvited, yet he went on to become the sport's biggest draw.
Q 14Which everyday English phrase began as the bullfighting term for the matador's final sword thrust?
The moment of truth
The moment of truth. Ernest Hemingway carried it into English in 1932 by translating the Spanish el momento de la verdad.
Q 15The whole final performance with the red cloth, a linked dance of passes, is called what?
Faena
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.
Q 16In bullfighting, how does the crowd ask the president to award an ear?
By waving white handkerchiefs
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.
Q 17What is an indulto?
A pardon that spares the bull's life
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.
Q 18In bullfighting, the opening parade in which the participants salute the presiding dignitary is called what?
Paseíllo
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.
Q 19The ceremony at which a bullfighter is formally promoted to full matador is called what?
Alternativa
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.
Q 20Which is the largest bullring in the world?
Plaza México, Mexico City
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.
Q 24Until 1974, Spanish rules let women fight bulls only in which way?
On horseback
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.
Q 25Cristina Sánchez, a star of the 1990s, was the first woman to do what?
Complete her alternativa in Europe
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.
Q 26Which nickname did matador Juan José Padilla earn on returning after a 2011 goring cost him an eye?
The Pirate
The Pirate. Just five months after the goring he was back in the ring, fighting bulls with a patch over the lost eye.
Q 27A statue of which scientist stands outside Madrid's main bullring, for a discovery that saved many gored matadors?
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming. His penicillin made horn wounds far less likely to kill, so in 1964 a statue of him went up outside Las Ventas.
Q 28How does Portuguese bullfighting mainly differ from Spanish?
The bull is not killed in front of the audience
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.
Q 29In Portuguese bullfighting, what are the eight men who grab the bull bare-handed called?
Forcados
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.
Q 30The Portuguese cavaleiro fights the bull from the back of which breed of horse?
Lusitano
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.