Bullfighting

Bullfighting is the most traditional of Spanish Fiestas. The Spanish people consider them art forms which are intimately linked with their country’s history, art and culture.
You can trace bullfighting all the way back to popular spectacles in ancient Rome, but it was in the Iberian Peninsula that these contests were fully developed by the Moors from North Africa who overran Andalucía in AD 711. Bullfighting developed into a ritualistic occasion observed in connection with feast days, on which the conquering Moors, mounted on highly trained horses, confronted and killed the bulls.
Today bullfighting is big business in Spain with the top matadores earning comparable salaries to the nation's top soccer stars and rock idols.
There are seventy bullrings in Andalucía, of which sixteen are located in the province of Málaga.

Plaza de la Malagueta - opened in 1876, capacity 14,000 spectators.
Plaza de Ronda - opened in 1785, capacity 6,000 spectators.
Algarrobo - opened at the end of the 19th century, capacity 3,000 spectators.
Antequera - opened in 1848, capacity 8,200 spectators.
Benalauria - capacity 5,000 spectators.
Benalmádena - opened in 1968, capacity 3,600 spectators.
Carratraca - opened in 1878, capacity 3,000 spectators.
Coín - capacity 4,000 spectators.
Cortes de la Frontera - capacity 1,000 spectators.
Estepona - opened in 1972, capacity 8,000 spectators.
Fuengirola - opened in 1962.
Gaucín - capacity 6,000 spectators.
Marbella - opened in 1964, capacity 9,000 spectators.
Nueva Andalucía - opened in 1968.
Torremolinos - opened in 1968.
Vélez-Malaga - opened in 1894, capacity 5,000 spectators.

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