REAL PLAZA DE TOROS

Description

Going to the bullfights in El Puerto is far more than simply watching a show in a ring. Famous bullfighter Joselito was right when he stated that well known phrase immortalised on a colourful ceramic tile at the Plaza de Toro´s main entrance: “If you haven´t been to a bullfight in El Puerto, then you don´t really know what a day at the bullfights is like.”

The stadium has the shape of a sixty-sided regular polygon with a diametre of 99´8 metres and a seating plan for over 12,000 spectators including an outer gallery, two rings of seats comprised by the covered balcony and the box seats and lastly, the steeply-sloped sixteen front rows. The 60-metre bullring (one of the largest in existence) is separated from the public by a two-metre refuge. But these are not the most important dimensions to mention, but rather that other dimension—the luminosity full of joy and colour, that mysterious duende or spirit lent by its architectural grace that creates such a special ambience at the bullfights in El Puerto de Santa María.

The Plaza de Toros was built by a company made up of illustrious patrons presided by Tomás Osborne Böhl de Faber, a descendent of the famous writer, Fernán Caballero. Upon celebrating the Plaza´s Centennial, another ceramic plaque was placed in her honour, just opposite the other plaque commemorating that unforgettable phrase uttered by Joselito El Gallo. The bullring´s inauguration took place on 5-6 June 1880 with two days of bullfighting starring toreros Antonio Carmona, nicknamed Gordito and Rafael Molina, also known as Lagartijo.