RONDA 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.

MUSEUM

The Bullfighting Museum, placed beneath the public galleries, provides a chronological tour of the culture of the bull and the basic aspects of the bullfight, the Fiesta, its origins and links to the art of horse riding, the role of Ronda and its bullfighting dynasties headed by Pedro Romero and Antonio Ordóñez. Among the exhibits the visitor will find a splendid collection of engravings, lithographs and prints including a full set of Goya's Tauromaquia, works by Victor Adam and Lake Price; books and engravings on equestrianism, oil paintings from the 17th to 19th centuries; a collection of bullfighting costumes and other memorabilia and posters of recent bullfights, all based on original work commissioned from leading artists such as Arroyo, Barceló, Campano, Félix de Cárdenas, Darío Villalba, Pérez Villalta, Úrculo, etc.

The Royal Harness Collection of the House of Orleans comprises a complete set of harnesses, saddles and livery presented by the King of France, Louis-Phillippe d'Orléans, to his son the Duke of Montpensier. The exhibition also includes the spectacular mameluke saddles and the Turkish style saddlery (talabartería) produced in the Parisian workshops of the 19th century.
The itinerary continues with the Collection of Antique Firearms. There are some 300 pieces including originals from the armouries of Philip IV and Charles III, European pistols and rifles of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (flintlock, hammer, wheel and pin); other pieces from the armouries of Louis XIV, Napoleon or English monarchs; Venetian, Indian and English pistols, as well as harquebuses used in the Spanish War of Succession.

Finally, the Real Maestranza Gallery aims to show the origins of this chivalrous institution, linked to the military orders of the Middle Ages, and its role in the history of Ronda. The Gallery contains pictures, arms, uniforms, documents and other materials.
This interesting selection of historical and cultural content (tauromachy, equestrianism and chivalry, antique firearms) is only available as part of the visit to the bullring complex.