Las Ventas bullring

Before the Plaza de Las Ventas, there were other bull rings in Madrid. The first was made of wood and circular and was mounted in 1737 next to the embouchure of the Manzanares River, in the place called Casa Puerta, due to the great architect of the Madrid baroque Pedro de Ribera.

The next one was built in 1749 and was the first permanent bullring and also the first one in which wood, brick was used. It was installed on land near the Puerta de Alcalá, between the current streets of Serrano and Lagasca, where today is the church of San Manuel and San Benito. It was at the wish of King Ferdinand VI, and his architects were Juan Bautista Sachetti, Ventura Rodríguez and Fernando Moradillo. 

But in 1860, the city of Madrid began the works of its expansion due to the considerable increase in population, and it was the engineer and architect Carlos María de Castro who, in the new layout of the city, proposed the transfer to another part of the city. bullring, specifically behind the Retiro Park. In 1872 work began for the construction of the new square that would be located to the right of Alcalá street - then called Camino de Aragón - where today the Palacio de los Deportes is located. The square had a capacity for 12.000 spectators and was built by the architects Emilio Rodríguez Ayuso and Lorenzo Álvarez, in the neo-Mudejar style. For many years, it would be an example of construction for most of the squares until its closure, on October 14, 1934.

The Monumental Bullring of Las Ventas was designed by a great bullfighter José Gómez Ortega, Joselito “El Gallo”, who was killed by a bull in Talavera de la Reina on May 16, 1920. The architect who designed the project was José Espeliú -Who died without seeing it finished- and his work was continued by another architect, Manuel Muñoz Monasterio, who years later would design the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium of Real Madrid. Its construction lasted several years because the place chosen for its location in the Arroyo del Abroñigal required many earthworks, clearings and repairs. The works began under the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera –between 1923 and 1929- and the Second Republic was already proclaimed. 

The first bullfight was held 17 1931 June, still not completed, and was organized by the then Mayor of Madrid, Pedro Rico, in order to raise funds for unemployed workers. Several bullfighters participated in the bullfight, including Marcial Lalanda and the Mexican Fermín Espinosa "Armillita". The official opening would be delayed until the 21 of October of 1934.

 
During the Civil War part of its facilities were destroyed and used as a prison, to keep animals and as an arsenal of weapons and as an anecdote, we must remember that the strangest image was that in 1939, its ring had been converted into an orchard where vegetables and legumes were grown, which served as food for the soldiers.

After the war, the 24 of June of 1939, the first bullfight was held, which was called the Corrida de la Victoria and involved up to six bullfighters. Since then, in the Bullring of Las Ventas have played and acted all the great figures of modern and contemporary bullfighting, whether Spanish, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Colombian, Portuguese, French, Venezuelan or Peruvian, because the Fiesta is universal and Thanks to the Spanish explorers who arrived in America, the bullfighting party spread throughout most of the American territory. 

Four bullfighters have died in the Las Ventas bullring: two bullfighters (Félix Almagro in 1939 and Pascual Márquez in 1941) and two banderilleros (“El Coli” in 1964 and “El Campeño”, the latter in 1988). Furthermore, in 1957 the carpenter Pablo Pérez Gómez also died in the infirmary of the square, after being caught by a bull that jumped into the alley.

Las Ventas is the most important square in the world and the second in capacity, after the Monumental de México in which almost 50.000 spectators fit. In bullfighting, after having learned the trade as calf and bullfighters, a bullfighter receives the title of doctor in Bullfighting in a ceremony that can be held in any square and is called alternative. But it is only in the Plaza de Las Ventas where bullfighters confirm the alternative in Spain. Las Ventas is the only bullring in Spain in which festivities are offered every Sunday between the months of March and October and in which the San Isidro fair takes place between May 10 and 30, organizing bullfights, novilladas or rejones runs every afternoon.

With regard to the style of the building, it is Mudejar, with excessive overload on its façade, in which there is not a single smooth cloth that offers a contrast note. The architect, Manuel Muñoz Monasterio affirmed at the end of his work that "only in the chapel, a more intimate place, I have allowed myself an adaptation of the Mexican colonial style".

The Las Ventas Bullring has four floors. Its circular galleries lead to the different towns. There are eleven lines: those of Shadow are numbers 9, 10, 1, 2, and Preferente, located on top of bullpen. The lines of Sol and Sombra are numbers 3 and 8 and those of Sol are numbers 4, 5, 6 and 7. Due to its height, the square is divided into: barriers, counter barriers, low lines, high lines, stands, boxes and broadsides . Only the stands, the boxes and the volleys are under cover. The rest of the localities are discovered. 

The square also has two patios: one of cuadrillas or horses and another of drag. In the first, a chapel, a living room and the infirmary are installed, where doctors heal injured bullfighters during the celebration and also to any spectator. In him also they are the stables and the services for the recognition of horses, breastplates and puyas. On the top floor of the patio is the Bullfighting Museum of Madrid.

In the trawl yard are the offices of the Bullfighting Center of the Community of Madrid, owner of the bullring, and the company that manages and organizes the bullfighting festivities. There is also a space enabled as cattle carcass, at the end of each run where the bull is broken and another on the top floor that is the housing of the mayoral.

Between the two patios there are five corrals to keep the cattle, one of them more spacious, which serves for the disembarkation of the cattle, and two others, called veterinary recognition and where the days of celebration are proceeded to the draw.

Finally, two special and emblematic places of the square stand out. On the upper floor there is the Royal Box, which is exclusively accessible to members of the Family and Royal House. And the Puerta Grande, where the bullfighters are removed by the fans after being awarded with two ears in the same afternoon.

The first bullfighting celebration held in the bullring of Las Ventas took place at the 17 june of 1931, the date on which the plaza was inaugurated. It was a bullfight, organized by the then mayor of Madrid, Don Pedro Rico, in order to raise funds to alleviate the difficulties faced by the many unemployed who lived in the city. The right-handers who took part were Diego Mazquiarán "Fortuna", Marcial Lalanda, Nicanor Villalta, Fausto Barajas, Luis Fuentes Bejarano, Vicente Barrera, Fermin Espinosa "Armillita" and Manuel Mejias "Welcome", being the first bull that jumped into the arena " Hortelano ", from the livestock of the Duque de Veragua.

It was a premature opening of the square, since the entrances to the venue presented many difficulties for the fans and had to be adapted hastily. For this reason, the official inauguration of the square was delayed until the 21 of October of 1934, with a bullfight in which the bulls of Doña Carmen de Federico, before Murube, intervene the main figures of that then: Juan Belmonte, Marcial Lalanda and Joaquín Rodríguez "Cagancho".

This first formal season of the bullring was made up of three festivities: two bullfights and one bullfight. In 1935, a continuous season was organized, consisting of 47 celebrations, of which 23 were bullfights and 24 novilladas.

Precisely in 1935, in the second of the celebrated celebrations, the first wounded in the arena is registered, specifically the bullfighter Félix Almagro, who, unfortunately, would be mortally wounded the 13 of July of 1939, in one of the first celebrations held in the ring of Las Ventas, at the end of the Civil War.

The 22 of September of 1935, dressed in lights for the last time in this ring Juan Belmonte, nicknamed the "Pasmo de Triana", leaving evidence of his undeniable art, when cutting the two ears and the tail to a bull of the cattle ranch of Coquilla A week later he said goodbye to bullfighting, although he would reappear years later as a rejoneador.

The bullfighting activity in the bullring of Las Ventas is momentarily suspended after a bullfight held 22 July 1936. Four days earlier, the July 18, the Civil War had broken out. For three years, the bullring in Madrid became an immense orchard, destroying its interior furnishings. After the fight, the 1 of April of 1939, in just two months the building and the bullring were rehabilitated and the bulls return to the Monumental the 24 of May with a bullfight called "de la Victoria", in which they made the paseíllo Marcial Lalanda, Vicente Barrera, "El Estudiante", Pepe Amorós, Domingo Ortega, Pepe Bienvenida and Antonio Cañero.

The beginning of the new decade of the forties is characterized by celebrating more novilladas than bullfighting, due, mainly, to the delicate situation in which the Spanish wild hut had been as a result of the aforementioned war.

Throughout the successive years there are a series of events that will define the life of the square in a definite way. Thus, for example, there is a relay of the bullfighting generations marked by Marcial Lalanda who says goodbye to bullfighting and emerges with great skill as Manuel Rodríguez "Manolete", Pepe Luís Vázquez and Luis Miguel "Dominguín".

Manuel Rodríguez "Manolete" had outstanding performances in the arena of Las Ventas, highlighting above all the work done by the 6 of July of 1944 to a hat of the Portuguese livestock of Pinto Barreiros, by the name of "Mouse".

But perhaps, in 1947 took place a fact of relevance for the life of the square, when Don Livinio Stuyck creates the Fair of San Isidro, a continuous cycle of bullfighting, which was the definitive accolade to the prestige of the Monumental de Las Sales, which made it the most important bullring in the world.

In the decade of the fifties and sixties, right-handers of great historical importance emerged, such as Julio Aparicio, Rafael Ortega, Miguel Báez "Litri", César Girón, Manolo Vázquez, and of course Antonio Ordóñez, whose successes continued into the 1960s. The sales of Las Ventas will be filled as never before. In fact some writers call it the second golden age of bullfighting, because to the names already mentioned are added bullfighters of great value and quality as Gregorio Sánchez, Jaime Ostos, Antonio Chenel "Antoñete", Diego Puerta, Paco Camino, Santiago Martín " El Viti ", Curro Romero and Manuel Benítez" El Cordobés ", which will be followed by others who will also have much to say in the following decade: Francisco Rivera" Paquirri "and Sebastián Palomo Linares.

The seventies are years of political uncertainty, of social upheaval and this translates into a greater claim to the public, encouraged by a new bullfighting criticism. It is a controversial decade, but in which also happen key facts such as the appearance of a large rancher who becomes the benchmark of the brave bull, fierce and at the same time capable of charging very humiliated and noble: Victorino Martín.

In the personal chapter, apart from those already mentioned, we must highlight other names that will be decisive and historical as Francisco Ruiz Miguel, Pedro Gutiérrez Moya "Niño de la Capea", Julio Robles, Ortega Cano and José María Manzanares.

In the decade of the eighties there is a return to the ring of great classic bullfighters whose ways contrast with those of the new values. But the first eighties are the emergence of the first generation of bullfighters emerged from schools of bullfighting, as José Cubero "Yiyo", so prematurely disappeared, and José Miguel Arroyo "Joselito", and also the successes of Paco Ojeda and the confirmation of the aforementioned Ortega Cano and "Niño de la Capea", as bullfighters of the taste and appreciation of Madrid, along with others such as Roberto Domínguez, José Antonio Campuzano and Juan Antonio Ruiz "Spartaco".

We can not forget to do this review of the eighties, the privileged position reached Victorino Martin, culminated with the pardon of the bull "Belador" in the run of the 1982 Press and the great successes in the bullfights of San Isidro and, especially, in the remembered "the bullfight of the century" celebrated the 1 of June of 1982 in which the skilful Ruiz Miguel, Luis Francisco Esplá and José Luis Palomar left on the shoulders next to the own breeder, after the fourth bull was rewarded with the return to the ring.

The final stretch of the last century (90 years), was undoubtedly marked by the balance between the novelties, represented by the Colombian bullfighter César Rincón, Enrique Ponce, José Tomás, "Morante de la Puebla" and the young veteran "Joselito". Already at the end of this time there is the figure of Julián López "El Juli".

It is already the panorama of bullfighting in the new century in which the Plaza de Las Ventas celebrated its first 75th anniversary, consolidated as the great dreamed bullring of bullfighting for the successes of bullfighters and ranchers. And with the XNUMXst century, other figures have already emerged that keep interest in our Festival alive, such as, for example, the French Sebastián Castella, Miguel Ángel Perera, Alejandro Talavante or José María Manzanares, to name a few right-handers.

In the same way that the understood hobby that comes to witness live the bullfighting celebrations that take place in the Plaza de Las Ventas is demanding when awarding the maximum trophies to the bullfighters who, to date, have passed through their bullring, it is even more so, perhaps, when it comes to recognizing the bravery of the other great protagonist of the Fiesta: the bull.

The highest award that recognizes this quality of the brave bull is the forgiveness of his death, that is, the granting of the pardon. And in this period of life of the bullring of Las Ventas, since its inauguration, only one bull has managed to return to live in the field after passing through the arena of this arena.

That bull had the name "Belador" and it belonged to Victorino Martín Andrés' herd. It was fought on July 19, 1982 by right-handed José Ortega Cano, in the course of the Corrida de la Prensa that year. Said specimen who, unanimously, received pardon, was a paragon of bravery, caste and power, but also nobility and class.

The recognition of the good qualities of a bull during his fight is also expressed in the award of the return to the ring. In the history of the Plaza de Las Ventas, from the officiality of the celebrations, few have been the bulls that have achieved this distinction.

For a farmer, getting one of his bulls to be rewarded with the return to the ring in Las Ventas is a real success. If we analyze the periods in which more laps have been granted, the year 1970 stands out greatly, since in that season that award was awarded to five bulls, apart from another for rejones and a steer.

With regard to the herds, two are the ones that lead, let's call it classification, by the number of horses awarded with the return to the ring after their death. It is the aforementioned by Victorino Martín, and Pablo Romero, both with seven cattle each.

With four rounds to the ring is the Extremadura livestock of the Count of the Court, highlighting the fact that two of these awards were obtained in the same celebration held 17 May 1968 during the Fair of San Isidro, in addition.

Below is a group of five herds with three rounds of the ring for their bulls: Sánchez Fabrés, Samuel Flores, Fermín Bohórquez, Infante da Cámara and Juan Pedro Domecq. In this group, the last one is noteworthy, because the same bull obtained two rounds of the ring on June 22, 1952.

The relationship is closed with a group of seven herds whose bulls have obtained two rounds of the ring and another group of 23, the most numerous, with only one, among which are some as prestigious as the Marqués de Albaserrada, Murteira Grave, Guardiola Domínguez or Torrestrella, to name a few examples.

As for the steers, 57 have been the winners, representatives of 40 herds, with which the recognition by the public is more distributed. In this case there is no iron that stands out from the others, but there is a group of six, whose cattle have made the return to the ring three times: Manuel Arranz, Isaías and Tulio Vázquez, Carlos Núñez, Marqués de Albaserrada, María Cruz Gomendio and David Ribeiro Telles. Precisely it is to emphasize this last one, because the prize was obtained by three bullfighters in the celebration celebrated the afternoon of the 6 of October of 1968.

Finally, we must highlight the fact that only three herds have seen the behavior of their bulls recognized with the return to the ring in rejones runs, namely: Graciliano Pérez Tabernero, Urquijo de Federico and Juan Mari Pérez Tabernero.