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45-429: The classic bullring is an enclosed, roughly circular amphitheatre with tiered rows of stands that surround an open central space. The open space forms the arena or ruedo , a field of densely packed crushed rock ( albero ) that is the stage for the bullfight. Also on the ground level, the central arena is surrounded by a staging area where the bullfighters prepare and take refuge, called the callejón (alley). The callejón

90-542: A house show in 2009 and in 2011. French electronic group Justice recorded live album Access All Arenas on July 19, 2012. Depeche Mode performed at the Roman amphitheatre three times: on August 8, 1986, during their Black Celebration Tour , on July 20, 2006, during their Touring the Angel , and on July 16, 2013, during their Delta Machine Tour . The 2006 show was recorded for the group's live album project Recording

135-670: A blue crescent. Traveling without a permit meant a death sentence. This systematic suppression forced the Muslims to seek refuge in mountainous regions of southern Andalusia; Ronda was one such refuge. On May 25, 1566, Philip II decreed the use of the Arabic language (written or spoken) illegal, required that doors to homes remain open on Fridays to verify that no Muslim Friday prayers were conducted, and levied heavy taxes on Morisco trades. This led to several rebellions, one of them in Ronda under

180-578: A principal role in the development of modern Spanish bullfighting . In a family responsible for such innovations as the use of the cape, or muleta , and a sword especially designed for the kill, Pedro in particular transformed bullfighting into "an art and a skill in its own right, and not simply ... a clownishly macho preamble to the bull's slaughter". Ronda was heavily affected by the Spanish Civil War , which led to emigration and depopulation. The scene in chapter 10 of Hemingway 's For Whom

225-511: Is a Roman amphitheatre in Nîmes , southern France. Built around 100 CE , shortly after the Colosseum of Rome , it is one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. It is 133 metres (436 ft) long and 101 metres (331 ft) wide, with an arena measuring 68 by 38 metres (223 by 125 ft). The outer facade is 21 metres (69 ft) high with two storeys of 60 arcades. It

270-660: Is about 35,000. Ronda is known for its cliffside location and a deep canyon that carries the Guadalevín River and divides the town. It is one of the towns and villages that are included in the Sierra de las Nieves National Park . Around the city are remains of prehistoric settlements dating to the Neolithic , including the rock art of Cueva de la Pileta . The places of Arunda and Acinipo mentioned by Pliny have been traditionally identified with current Ronda. In

315-482: Is among the 20 largest Roman amphitheatres of the 400 in existence. In Roman times, the building could hold 24,000 spectators, who were spread over 34 tiers of terraces divided into four self-contained zones or maeniana . During Roman times, the Arena of Nîmes functioned as an arena where gladiators battled each other and wild animals. The advent of early medieval Christianity marked the end of these events, prompting

360-466: Is separated from the arena by a wall or other structure, usually made of wood and roughly 140 cm high. The partition wall has doors for the entrance and exit of the bull ( puerta de los toriles ) and human participants ( puerta de cuadrilla ), although the form, number, and placement of these doors will vary from one bullring to another. In regular places, the wall is pushed outwards leaving splits ( burladero , from burlar: to evade, to dodge) that allow

405-402: Is surrounded by climbing rows of seats. The seats are priced differently according to the position of the sun during the show, normally in the afternoon. The hot sol , "sun", is cheaper than the fresher sombra , "shade". Bullrings evolved as specialized sporting arenas hand-in-hand with the sport that demanded them. Many of the ancient Roman amphitheatres had characteristics that can be seen in

450-526: The Neo-Mudéjar style became in vogue for plazas, involving decoration in visible brickwork. Since the 1990s, new construction technology allows some rings to be covered permanently or temporarily. The primary purpose of the ring is bullfighting, but it is usually limited to some festival weeks in the year. In other times, it may be used as a concert venue as in the Rock en el ruedo tour of Miguel Ríos or

495-684: The Spanish Civil War , the Badajoz ring was used as a confinement camp for supporters of the republic and many thousands were executed there by the Nationalist forces who had just occupied the town. Most indoor bullrings, especially in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, in addition to being used for concerts, have also been used for indoor sports such as basketball , ice hockey , boxing and lucha libre . The most famous bullrings in

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540-579: The Takurunna province . It was the hometown of the polymath Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887), an inventor , engineer , alleged aviator , chemist , physician , Muslim poet, and Andalusian musician . After the disintegration of the caliphate of Córdoba , Ronda became the capital of a small kingdom ruled by the Berber Banu Ifran , the taifa of Ronda . During this period, Ronda gained most of its Islamic architectural heritage. In 1065, Ronda

585-682: The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. In the fashion world, Italian designer Giorgio Armani specially designed the bullfighting costume called ‘Goyesco’ for famed bullfighter Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez on the occasion of the Corrida Goyesca that took place on September 6, 2009, in Ronda. Cayetano's suit of lights was in the Goyaesque style, comprising a jacket, trousers, and cloak in techno-satin. The three pieces were embroidered with sequins, small glitter stones, and thread, all matching

630-543: The Angel . David Gilmour Live in Nîmes - 20th/21st July 2016 The music festival Festival de Nîmes has taken place in the arena every summer since 1997. It celebrated 20 years with a major event in 2017. The 2017 Vuelta a España included the arena in the route of its opening stage, a 13,7 km (8,51 mile) team time trial , which was won by the BMC Racing Team . In 2022 German DJ Boris Brejcha performed in

675-489: The Bell Tolls , describing the 1936 execution of Fascist sympathisers in a (fictional) village who are thrown off a cliff, is considered to be modeled on actual events of the time in Ronda. Ronda is situated in a mountainous area about 750 m (2,460 ft) above mean sea level . The inner relief is gentle and includes areas of pastureland and vegetable and cereal growing areas. The Guadalevín River runs through

720-494: The Palace of Justice, providing us with a reminder of that period. In the middle of the 19th century, the architect Henri Revoil completed the restoration of the monument. Since 1853, when the first bullfight took place, the public has once again been able to watch festivities, sporting events, entertainments and bullfights at regular intervals. The statue of French matador Christian Montcouquiol, known as Nimeño II , stands at

765-560: The Saint (1978/79) filmed there - S1/E8: The Poppy Chain. British rock band Dire Straits recorded some of the live video and album, On the Night , in May 1992. German industrial metal group Rammstein recorded the majority of their DVD, Völkerball , on July 23, 2005. American heavy metal band Metallica recorded their DVD, Français Pour Une Nuit , on July 7, 2009. WWE hosted

810-613: The Visigoth kingdom by taking control of Nîmes. Thirty years later, they, in turn, were driven out by the Franks , who themselves finally settled in Nîmes. However, the city was now only a shadow of its former Roman self. It was not until the 12th century that a new expansion was to occur. As a sign of this renewal, in 1194, the Count of Toulouse authorised its vassals in Nîmes to build a new city wall, whose layout corresponded more or less to

855-420: The amphitheatre back its ancient appearance, but all that was done at that time was to clear away the buildings from the first floor gallery. By the 18th century, there were still 150 houses inside the arena with hundreds of people living in them. The clearing of the monument began in 1786 when the houses cluttering it were demolished. Only two walled arcades with their medieval windows have been preserved, opposite

900-424: The arena at an event organised by Cercle Music  [ es ] . The performance is available on YouTube . Dua Lipa performed in the arena during her Radical Optimism Tour on June 12 and 13, 2024. Ronda Ronda ( Spanish pronunciation: [ˈronda] ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Málaga , within the autonomous community of Andalusia . Its population

945-620: The base first of guerrilla warriors, then of numerous bandits, whose deeds inspired artists such as Washington Irving , Prosper Mérimée , and Gustave Doré . In the 19th century, the economy of Ronda was mainly based on agricultural activities. In 1918, the city was the seat of the Assembly of Ronda , in which the Andalusian flag, coat of arms, and anthem were designed. Ronda's Romero family—from Francisco , born in 1698, to his son Juan, to his famous grandson Pedro , who died in 1839—played

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990-490: The boulevards of the town that we see today. At that time, the amphitheatre was still an important element in the town defence system. A real little neighbourhood grew up there, with its own churches of St Peter and St Martin. Gradually, over the course of the 14th century, the amphitheatre lost its military value but remained a residential quarter. Influenced by the ideas of the Renaissance , King Francis I wanted to get

1035-434: The bullfighters to go in the arena and to take refuge but are too narrow for the bull. Nevertheless, on rare occasions the bull jumps the wall causing havoc in the corridor. The walls also have a type of stirrup or foothold that aids in crossing over to the central arena, and sometimes stirrups on the arena side as well; these are used mostly by event staff if they need to intervene quickly in the case of an emergency. The arena

1080-501: The bullrings of today (in fact the ring in Nîmes , France, is a Roman artifact, though it is more elliptical than the usual plaza), and the origin of bullfighting is very closely related to certain Roman traditions; in the formative years of the sport on the Iberian Peninsula , those Roman enclosures were not commonly utilised for bullfighting events. Back when bullfighting festivals were conducted principally on horseback,

1125-425: The city of Nîmes began to retract and strengthen its defences. The arcades of the amphitheatre were blocked up and the monument became an important part of the defence of Nîmes. A large number of people from the town took refuge inside the former amphitheatre that had now become a fortified castle. It suffered several sieges, but the amphitheatre has proved its very effective defence. In 725, Arabs from Spain annihilated

1170-630: The city of my dreams, and I have finally found it in Ronda" and "Nothing is more startling in Spain than this wild and mountainous city.") Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls describes the execution of Nationalist sympathizers early in the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans murder the Nationalists by throwing them from cliffs in an Andalusian village, and Hemingway allegedly based the account on killings that took place in Ronda at

1215-492: The city, dividing it in two and carving out the steep, 100-plus-meter-deep El Tajo canyon above which the city perches. The Spanish fir is endemic to the mountains surrounding Ronda. American artists Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles spent many summers in Ronda as part-time residents of Ronda's old-town quarter called La Ciudad. Both wrote about Ronda's beauty and famous bullfighting traditions. Their collective accounts have contributed to Ronda's popularity over time. In

1260-496: The cliffs of El Tajo . Orson Welles said he was inspired by his frequent trips to Spain and Ronda (e.g. his unfinished film about Don Quixote ). After he died in 1985, his ashes were buried in a well on the rural property of his friend, retired bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez . English writer George Eliot 's book Daniel Deronda ("Daniel of Ronda") tells the story of a Spanish Jew brought up as an Englishman. Some speculation existed that Eliot's ancestors had lived in Ronda prior to

1305-529: The colour of the background fabric. Ronda was used as the setting for the flower market in the 2017 animated movie Ferdinand . Ronda is accessible via highways ( Autovía A-374 ) and by rail from Algeciras and from Córdoba . A direct train from Madrid to Ronda operates twice daily. The single-track railway between Ronda and Algeciras was built between 1890 and 1892 by the Algeciras Gibraltar Railway Company . It enabled

1350-538: The entrance, called "Hero". In 1853, balloonist M. Louis Deschamps was killed during his 120th flight from the Arena of Nîmes. Bad weather had already forced the mayor to call off a parachute performance, but the balloon took off as planned and got caught in the bad weather. Deschamps was thrown from the basket and the balloon came down about half a mile further along. French New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut filmed part of his first film, Les Mistons , in 1957. British action-adventure television series Return of

1395-490: The feast of San Mamés , mostly associated with northern Spain. It was precisely in the hamlet of San Mamés, between Aroche and Rosal de la Frontera , where the oldest documented coso was built in 1599. Very little of the structure of this rectangular arena remains, which has been extensively documented by local historian Antonio Rodríguez Guillén "Chamizo". Another old coso was built in Almonaster la Real in 1608, and

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1440-645: The fifth century AD, Ronda was conquered by the Suebi , led by Rechila , being reconquered in the following century by the Eastern Roman Empire , under whose rule Acinipo was abandoned. Later, the Visigothic king Liuvigild captured the city. Ronda was part of the Visigoth realm until 713, when it fell to the Umayyad troops, who named it Hisn al-Rundah ("Castle of Rundah") and made it the capital of

1485-459: The first and second centuries, the Roman Empire was a prosperous, urbanised society. In the third century CE, this stability was shattered by crisis. The empire was torn apart by civil wars, the barbarians became more frightening and epidemics made the whole situation worse. As gladiatorial fighting was an urban phenomenon, it declined at the same time as the cities. From the fourth century,

1530-695: The first decades of the 20th century, the famous German poet Rainer Maria Rilke spent extended periods in Ronda, including three months at the Hotel Reina Victoria (built in 1906) between December 1912 and February 1913; his room remains to this day as he left it, a minimuseum of Rilkeana. According to the hotel's publicity, Rilke wrote (though probably not in Spanish) He buscado por todas partes la ciudad soñada, y al fin la he encontrado en Ronda and No hay nada más inesperado en España que esta ciudad salvaje y montañera ("I have sought everywhere

1575-621: The leadership of Al-Fihrey. Al-Fihrey's soldiers defeated the Spanish army sent to suppress them under the leadership of Alfonso de Aguilar. The massacre of the Spaniards prompted Phillip II to order the expulsion of all Moriscos in Ronda. In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic invasion and the subsequent Peninsular War caused much suffering in Ronda, whose inhabitants were reduced from 15,600 to 5,000 in three years. Ronda's area became

1620-579: The live record Diamonds & Rust in the Bullring , featuring a Joan Baez concert in the Bilbao plaza. Before the diffusion of modern sports premises, bullrings were used in the Basque Country for traditional sports similar to challenges of resistance running . The public made bets on the number of laps the runner could make. No bulls were involved. After the battle of Badajoz (1936) of

1665-609: The nearby plaza from Campofrío , completed in 1718, is among the oldest with a circular shape. The oldest plaza still in use, Las Virtudes in Santa Cruz de Mudela , Ciudad Real , dates from 1641 and has a square shape. The plaza from Béjar (1711) was originally rectangular and later made circular. Likewise, when the La Maestranza bullring in Seville was authorized for construction in 1730 specifically to house bullfights,

1710-451: The original plans called for a rectangular arena for the first three years, only later to be changed to a circular form that avoided the cornering of the action and put all viewers at the same approximate distance, the same reason for the elliptical form of amphitheatres. Another circular plaza was begun in Ronda in 1754, and it featured its first bullfights in 1782. In the late 19th century,

1755-401: The second century BCE and were specifically designed for putting on spectacular combats between gladiators or animal fights. This new type of construction took the form of two theatres set face to face with an oval arena which allowed everyone, wherever they were sitting, to see the spectacles being acted out in the sand covering below, without danger of missing anything. At its high point, in

1800-421: The spectacle was a more public affair that took place in the city's open plaza areaIt was only later, when bullfights were conducted principally by men on foot, that the public needed a structure to house them appropriately. Initially, temporary wooden fences were erected to prevent the bulls from escaping. When bullfights became much more popular in 18th century, not only did the crowd need special seating to view

1845-469: The spectacle, they also needed a structure to contain the general disorder that reigned at festivals during the heyday of such legendary figures as Costillares , Pedro Romero , and Pepe-Hillo . For centuries, early cosos (from Latin cursum , meaning course, track) were rectangular. The earliest examples are found in the Sierra de Huelva , which was the destination of transhumance routes from León , who brought some of their culture with them, including

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1890-601: The transformation of the amphitheater into a fortress and subsequently a walled town. The 19th century saw the restoration of the arena, accompanied by the removal of houses that had been constructed inside it. Today, the Arena of Nîmes is the site of two annual bullfights during the Feria de Nîmes , and it is also used for other public events like the reenactment of antiquity "The great Roman Games" and for concerts. Roman amphitheatres first appeared in Southern Italy in

1935-702: The world are Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid (Spain), widely regarded as the most prestigious one, La Maestranza in Seville (Spain), Campo Pequeno in Lisbon (Portugal) and Plaza de Toros México in Mexico City . Villages round the Camargue, such as Rodilhan in the Gard, who also practise 'mise à mort' - killing the bull. Arena of N%C3%AEmes The Arena of Nîmes ( French : Arènes de Nîmes )

1980-595: Was conquered by the taifa of Seville led by Abbad II al-Mu'tadid . Both the poet Abu al-Baqa ar-Rundi (1204–1285) and the Sufi scholar Ibn Abbad al-Rundi (1333–1390) were born in Ronda. The Islamic domination of Ronda ended in 1485, when it was conquered by Rodrigo Ponce de León, Duke of Cádiz after a brief siege. Subsequently, most of the city's old edifices were renewed or adapted to Christian roles, while numerous others were built in newly created quarters such as Mercadillo and San Francisco. The Plaza de Toros de Ronda

2025-527: Was founded in the town in 1572. The Spanish Inquisition affected the Muslims living in Spain greatly. Shortly after 1492, when the last outpost of Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula , Granada , was conquered, the Spanish decreed that all Muslims must either vacate the peninsula without their belongings or convert. Many people overtly converted to keep their possessions while secretly practicing their religion. Muslims who converted were called Moriscos . They were required to wear upon their caps and turbans

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