Folklore

Bullfight

The Bullfight is one of the most famous Spanish traditions, even though one of the most disputed. This festival wouldn´t exist, if the “Toro bravo” wouldn´t exist. This race developed from the primitive Urus, which was domiciled not only in Spain, but preferred settled down here and survived until today. In other regions, in which the Urus lived before, it is today considered as extinct and kept as an ancient zoological species.

The bullfights, as we know them today, arose in the 18th century, when the noblemen gave up the “Toreo” on horses and the workers started to practise the bullfight without horses to prove their value and smartness. So it is mentioned in the chronicles how this sport of the nobility developed to a sport of the folk. At the beginning there was no structure of the competition or rules in the arena. Francisco Romero was the torero who developed the rules and created the red kerchief (Muleta), as it is used for the bullfights today. The bullfights have a lot of fans in Spain. The Spanish regards the bullfight as a beautiful spectacle, an art and a cultural tradition, which has survived until today like the “Toros Bravos”. As opposed to the common opinion, the pleasure of this spectacle is for the Spanish not the ordeal or the killing of the bull, but they marvel at the value and smartness of the torero. The audience concentrates on the torero and applauds always for his handiest moves when everyone else would be rather run away facing a bull.

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