Bullfighting

What it is

Bullfighting is a contest of skill and nerve, run to rules and cultural expectations, in which a fighter works to subdue, and in most forms to kill, a bull. The word also stretches to related spectacles, such as bull wrestling, where two bulls are matched against one another, and to older displays of dancing round or leaping over the animal, or snatching an object tied to its horns. The best-known version is the Spanish style. Its bull is a specialised animal: the Spanish Fighting Bull is chosen for aggression and a strong build, and grows up on open range with little contact with people.

Origins and history

Humans and bulls have matched wits for a very long time. The deepest roots lie in prehistoric bull cults and sacrifice around Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean; Crete pictured athletes leaping bulls; the Epic of Gilgamesh tells of heroes bringing down the Bull of Heaven. Ancient Iranian religion gave the bull's death a cosmic meaning, and Rome staged human-versus-animal hunts, the venationes, which one theory says the emperor Claudius carried to Hispania in place of banned gladiator games. In medieval Spain the fight became a noble pastime on horseback; a chronicle notes bullfights at the 1128 wedding of Alfonso VII.

How a corrida runs

A corrida runs in three stages, each opened by a bugle call. The toreros first enter in a parade, the paseíllo, to salute the presiding dignitary while a band plays. The bull is released and tested with the large magenta-and-gold cape. A picador then rides in on a padded horse and uses a lance behind the neck mound, the morrillo, which lowers the bull's head for the later kill; before 1930 horses went unprotected and many were gored. Three banderilleros follow, each planting a pair of barbed sticks in the bull's shoulders to revive its charge. Last, the matador works alone with the smaller red muleta.

Dress and the ring

Fighters wear the traje de luces, the suit of lights, modelled on Andalusian dress of the seventeenth century. Gold marks out the matadores; the banderilleros, also called toreros de plata, or bullfighters of silver, wear silver instead. Each matador commands a cuadrilla of six: two mounted lancers, three banderilleros and a mozo de espadas, the sword page. The arena is the bullring. The oldest plazas still standing, at Sevilla and Ronda, were built in the 1700s; early rings were square, like the Plaza de Armas, until the round shape prevailed, because corners allowed the bull to be cornered. The largest, Plaza México in Mexico City, holds 41,000.

Today and change

Opinion on bullfighting is sharply divided, with concerns raised over animal welfare, public funding and religion. Spain defines the corrida in law as a cultural event or heritage, while many forms are classed elsewhere as a blood sport. The practice is illegal in most countries, yet still lawful across most of Spain and Portugal, in parts of southern France, in some Latin American republics and in areas of the Philippines. Colombia is phasing it out, with a full ban due in 2027. In the nineteenth century southern France took up the fight and shaped its own form, showing how the custom keeps changing.

How Bullfighting is kept

1. The cuadrillas parade into the ring, the paseíllo, and salute the presiding dignitary to band music. 2. First third (tercio de varas): the bull is tested with the capote by the matador and banderilleros, then a picador on a padded horse uses his lance behind the morrillo, the neck mound. 3. Second third (tercio de banderillas): three banderilleros each plant two barbed sticks in the bull's shoulders. 4. Final third (tercio de muerte): the matador, alone with the muleta and sword, performs the faena in series of passes, then takes the steel estoque for the kill, with the descabello as backup.

When and where

No fixed date is set. A corrida is staged at a bullring, ordinarily as the headline event of a local festival or fair. Historically, royal weddings and religious festivities were celebrated with fights in the town plaza.

The custom is strongest in Spain, where the law defines it as a cultural event, and it is kept across much of Latin America. It also continues in Portugal, which has its own style, in southern France and in parts of the Philippines. Most other countries outlaw it.

What Bullfighting means

To those who keep it, the corrida is an art rather than a sport: the matador's passes with the muleta are meant to build sculptural shapes between man and bull, linked into a rhythm like a dance. Courage is the heart of it; the ideal, set by Juan Belmonte, is to work within a few centimetres of the horns. The final thrust, made over the horns with the fighter's own body exposed, is the moment the whole performance is judged by.

Questions people ask about Bullfighting

See also

Charro traditionThe equestrian skills, formal attire and rodeo arts of the Mexican horseman.KambalaAn annual traditional buffalo race across muddy paddy fields in southwestern IndiaCujuAn ancient Chinese kicking game played without hands using a stuffed or air-filled ballArnisThe national martial art of the Philippines using sticks, bladed weapons and open hands

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• It was Spain’s ‘national fiesta’. Now bullfighting divides its peopleThe Guardian, Article
• Catalonia bans bullfighting in landmark Spain voteBBC, Article
• FranceUNESCO, Heritage listing
• It was Spain’s ‘national fiesta’. Now bullfighting divides its peopleThe Guardian, Article
• Catalonia bans bullfighting in landmark Spain voteBBC, Article
• FranceUNESCO, Article

• Bullfighting on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-04.