Cristina Garcia Married | Salamanca (EFE).- Since the 15th century, hundreds of residents have erected an ephemeral bullring in Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca) in three days, a tradition that is on its way to being declared an asset of intangible cultural interest.
The bullring is assembled and disassembled every year in the Plaza Mayor of the town to host the bullfighting festivities of the Carnival of the Bull, one of the oldest popular festivals in Spain, which this year is celebrated between February 17 and 21 and which has its nerve center in this ephemeral bullring.
Construction begins on the Friday before the carnival, when grandparents, parents and children build the traditional “tablaos” with their own wood.
The neighbors are responsible for the transfer, assembly and disassembly of the wood, which is cleaned and stored until the following year.
This weekend Ciudad Rodrigo experienced the traditional festive atmosphere that accompanies the construction of the square, which will be dismantled on Ash Wednesday, following the cycle that repeats this ancestral ritual year after year.
More than 200 neighbors participate in the assembly and usually up to three generations of the same family can be seen. This solidarity construction is the most characteristic element of the peculiar Carnaval del Toro: a celebration that combines costumes with bulls since 1732.
Well of cultural interest
This Saturday, the people of Mirobrigens celebrated not only the eve of their most precious festival but also the start of the process for the construction of this ephemeral square to be declared an asset of immaterial cultural interest.
“We had been fighting for it for a long time. We are very happy that the file has been started and we hope that it will be concluded with a positive result,” the mayor of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marcos Iglesias (PP), told Efe.
To make this good news known to the neighbors, the declaration of merits was read in public so that this tradition obtains the expected recognition. On January 13, the official procedure began by the Ministry of Culture of Castilla y León, according to the Official State Gazette.
“Transmitted and maintained as living heritage from generation to generation, the construction of the Ciudad Rodrigo bullring constitutes a significant expression of the way of life of a community and an element of bonding or original social relationship traditionally developed in that territory”, indicate that document.
The council requests “the highest consideration” for this ancestral legacy “for the preservation of its spirit and the maintenance of the model and constructive method”, as well as for “the collective appreciation of all citizens”.
Bullring with 600 years of history
The oldest reference of the ephemeral square of Ciudad Rodrigo dates from 1418. Since then it has been the bullfighting reference and the official enclave for the celebration of all kinds of festivities, although the first sources that link bullfights and carnival date from the 18th century.
It is a “stuck” bullring, built entirely of wood, which is assembled and disassembled through the craftsmanship of citizens who, organized into different guilds, participate year after year in its construction.
The arena has a quadrangular shape, with about 955 square meters, 55 meters long and 18 meters wide. It is made up of five doors and forty-seven “tablaos”, which are obtained at a popular auction. The arcades and ground floor of the Town Hall are converted into bullpens during carnival days.
«The uniqueness and importance of the Ciudad Rodrigo bullring is given by its ephemeral nature, assembled and disassembled every year; for its artisan construction process with characteristic techniques and solutions and for a joint execution to which the community itself contributes, “says the file that wants to shield this tradition as an asset of cultural interest. EFE