CITY OF SAN ROQUE BULLFIGHTING MUSEUM
The City of San Roque Bullfighting Museum is certainly a tourist attraction for bullfighting aficionados and people interested in the world of bullfighting. Especially those keen to learn about the history of San Roque’s Bull Ring, one of the oldest in Spain.
The museum is located in one of the premises within the actual Bull Ring. The ground floor exhibition offers the visitor a wide range of documents and photographs from different historical periods of the local arena from its original inauguration in 1853. The figure of the matador, Manuel Ballón “El Africano” is recalled. This bullfighter invented the “Red Cape and Sword Technique” in the Plaza de Armas Square in the old quarter of the town in 1720. The importance of the symbol of the bull in ancient Mediterranean civilizations is also present in the exhibit and in the Phoenician and Roman layers at the Carteya Archaeological Site. A replica of a well-known Phoenician bronze bull is on show in the museum.
 |
 |
It was found in 1989 at Meadow Hill (Cerro del Prado) Archaeological Site in Guadarranque. In addition, several local bullfighter’s costumes and objects belonging to matadors linked to San Roque, engraving presses made of wood, old local newspapers cuttings and the old bull ring rules can be seen in the display cabinets. On the upper floor the Mexican bullfighter, Eduardo Liceaga is remembered. This matador died after being gored in San Roque in 1946, repeating the tragic death of Mariano Tornero a century earlier. Here that fateful Royal August Fair afternoon is recalled and the operation table from the infirmary where he was attended to can be seen. The wooden portal from which the bull, “Jaranero” (Partygoer), was released into the arena, killing the matador can also be viewed.
 |
 |
The celebration of the “Toro del Aguardiente” Bull Run also has its place here, as well as memorabilia about bullfighters such as Luis Miguel Dominguín, who passed away in the borough. Relics from the Bull Ring early period, old saddles, bullfighting costumes, paintings and engravings of the art of bullfighting are exhibited in this museum, offering the visitor an interesting view of local bullfighting history and the phenomenon of bullfighting.