Plaza de Toros

You can find the Plaza de Toros, which I am going to talk to you about in this post, in Murcia, in the vieja condomina area, next to the former Real Murcia stadium and the Reina Sofia Hospital.

I am going to say that I'm not a fan of bull-fighting, to be honest, I'm against it, but it is a part of our culture and of my city, so I'll try to be as objective as possible when giving my opinion and description.

The Plaza de Toros in Murcia was constructed in 1887 and was the biggest one in Spain, until they built the "monumental" bullrings. It is in an eclectic style, and it is in the shape of a regular polygon with 80 sides. In my opinion, it is quite big, it has a capacity of 15, 000 people so they also use it for other events when they need space to accommodate a lot of people.

I personally like the front of it, the symmetry of its sides, also the light colour, and the main door, maybe as a Murcian I am fond of it. Inside it is a typical bullring, although I haven't seen any others, only on the television. What I don't know is if all of them have a house inside where the plaza's caretakers live.

Currently, there are bullfights held as part of the Murcia Feria, which is an event in September, and this is when the most famous bullfighters come and also when they have more people coming to spectate the bullfights. It is also celebrated at other points in the year, such as at the "Bullfight against Cancer" which is a charity event or others from the Spring Festival. I thought that they took place every single month, and I was surprised when I went with my friend and my Dad told me that in December it isn't open because it isn't the right season, which made sense, but it surprised me that there is only one bull season per year. In addition to having bullfights here, they also have concerts and other events. There are as many concerts by international singers as by national ones, as well as other less famous ones.

The spectators usually go to watch the bullfights quite dressed up, in my opinion, they're posing a bit. Currently, the most famous Murcian bullfighter is Pepin Liria (he is from the town Cehegin) who you can see perform at places ranging from Murcia to Nazareno, or at any important event.

At Christmas 2013, I went to my friend's house who came on Erasmus from Japan, and we were lucky enough to be let in to see the bullring for a bit, as it wasn't the bullfighting season. The funny thing, but that also made me sad, was that my Japanese friend thought that they only fought the bulls, but when I told her that they killed them after, her face was full of fright and surprise... which in a strange way validated the way I feel about this form of "art". I think that a lot of tourists, like my friend, find bullfighting interesting and eye-catching to watch the bulls and the people that surround them as its a "typical Spanish" thing, but they don't know what that really is. There was a really nice woman who let us come in, and then went back to her house until we had finished teaching my Japanese friend about the bullring, so if for nothing more I thanked her for her kindness - because for a non-Spanish tourist, it is a privilege to see.

I went to a bullfight in the Plaza de Toros when I was very little, I remember how hotit was and that I was really bored. What I liked seeing the most was the midget bullfighters (I think that's what it's called), who consisted of some dwarves doing funny things for the public, although now I don't find that very funny either.

To get to the Plaza de Toros it is better to go by foot, as there isn't usually parking and it isn't far from the centre. If you live far away, the best way to get there is via bus, the lines that go past are the R14, the R17 and the R20.