Category Archives: Europe 2014

La plaza de toro.

On today our first full day in sevilla, we started the morning in the
cathedral. It is beautiful and as it hold the Guinness book of world
records for the largest church by volume, it was huge! More of the
cathedral later however.
One of the things I wanted to do here was visit the bullfighting ring, odd
I know as a vegetarian and animal lover, but I felt that I needed to hear
the history and understand it more before I chose to be against it. At the
bullfighting arena, there is a museum and a guided tour you can take for 7
euro, and interested in learning more, Big John, Mary (John’s parents),
Alan (John’s puedo-uncle), John and I, went for it.
The arena was built in the mid 1700s and is large and slightly decorated,
but mostly utilitarian. However, it is well maintained and painted white
with a pretty golden color. I enjoyed seeing the matador costumes up close
and can’t get over how detailed and ornate the embroidery and jewels are.

The history of bullfighting believe it or not didn’t start with bulls! They
started as military training games where men on horses would try to get
their lance through a hanging ring. Some general/capitan/Sargent/military
leader, raised cows and introduced them to be a moving target in the games
instead of the stationary ring. Now I was sad to learn that the bulls are
always killed, even if they kill the matador, another fighter steps in the
ring to kill the bull, so it never has a chance at survival. However, there
is a time limit of 20 minutes to the fight, and while that is good bit of
time its not as long as i thought the bull would have to suffer. Also, the
bulls in the past were given to charity and after the games the dead bulls
would feed the town. Even today the dead bulls are given to a butcher to
sell for the meat.
My verdict, I don’t want to see a game, but its a pat of Spanish culture and I am glad I learned more.