Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza, Seville

The bullring of the Real Maestranza de Caballería in Seville is one of the handsomest buildings of its kind anywhere, and one of the oldest. It stands in the Arenal, the old riverside quarter below the cathedral, on ground that was once the Baratillo hill, levelled at the expense of the Maestranza itself — a noble cavalry brotherhood founded to train horsemen, which still owns the building. Work began in the mid-eighteenth century and advanced in stages for more than a hundred years; the ring was only completed in 1881, and the architect Aníbal González carried out a major remodelling in 1914–1915.

Its most unusual feature is its shape. The first builders intended a perfect circle, but neighbouring houses stood in the way, and the ring was continued as a slightly flattened curve — in plan a polygon of some thirty sides rather than a true round. The asymmetry is barely noticeable at first, and then impossible to un-see. The stands, two-thirds stone and one-third wood, are ringed by an upper arcade of arches that frames the sand like a cloister. Above the royal box, the Palco del Príncipe finished in 1765 with sculpture by Cayetano de Acosta, sits a small dome faced with blue and white tiles.

For all the controversy that surrounds bullfighting, the building itself is a masterpiece of civic Baroque, protected as a national monument since 1983, and it holds around 12,000 spectators. The season runs from spring to late September, peaking during the April Fair. Outside the season the building is best seen through the bullfighting museum opened inside it in 1989, with a quiet view of the empty sand, the arcades and the tiled dome without the crowd.

Getting there

The bullring stands on Paseo de Cristóbal Colón in central Seville, on the Guadalquivir riverfront, a short walk from the cathedral. Seville Airport (SVQ) is about 10 km away, linked to the city by bus and taxi.