Explanatory panel in the museum. Click on the images to visualise them.

The first treatises on bullfighting appeared in the 18th century, with bullfights as they are conducted nowadays dating back to the 19th century. The excitement, chaos, commotion and tumult of the popular fiesta gave way to the three-act spectacles that are held today in monumental buildings like the Ronda bullring.


The prominence of the varilargueros, or picadors, the leading figures of early bullfighting festivities, survived until the mid-19th century, thereafter gradually being eclipsed by matadors on foot, who display their skill face to face with the bull in a variety of formal stages before going in for the kill with the estoque sword.

The taste for bravura, insolence and swift dodges which characterises the Sevillian style of bullfighting contrasts with the authenticity, severity and composure of the Ronda school.