Las Ventas: the decline of the first bullring in the world

Pigeon droppings adorn every corner of Las Ventas. Bird shit and bird shit that Piero Manzoni would have turned into art drip onto the peeling walls. On the ground, the cardboards are distributed next to columns and windows, as if they were the toilet of the flying rats. In the other bathrooms, those of the amateur on foot, the chairs of the cleaning staff remain at the door with their dust tome. If you look up, the cracks in the ceilings and walls make your insides tremble, full of moisture. The image is bleak, in a “regrettable” state, as denounced by the main bullfighting group in Madrid, the Asociación el Toro. “This plaza is a ruin,” they expressed on the last day of San Isidro, hoping that the Autumn Fair would bring some improvement. “Any. The whole season has remained the same, more deteriorated, more abandoned and with more accumulated dirt. We have protested, without receiving a response”, explains its president, Roberto García Yuste, who occupies his seat on 7 every afternoon. shadow – are “those of the Titanic”, as said by the fans in the VAR of the laying. Humidity and dirt on the granite of the laying guillermo Navarro It saddens to see so much damage in ‘La Moncloa del toreo’ as soon as you step on its flooring, with shattered tiles on the steps and terraces. The sinkholes, full of holes. The ‘guardavivos’, dead and without replacement. Sanding, painting and varnishing have not been known for years. Not even Botox would rejuvenate the face of more than one burladero, from sandboxers to politicians. What will the subscriber who paid 145 euros for a barrier think while the ‘peeling’ gray wood was lit on his festive Hispanic shirt? Vicente, from the balcony of 2, asked for a review. Others suggested bringing a watering can so that the grass that no one clears would grow even more lush. Instead, the row of planters remains completely empty. The poor condition of the bricks in one of the patios G. Navarro Box 0 has lost its number, as has several locations in 10. In Cuarto Tercio, on the ground floor of 9, the mural begins to suffer. Broken and with a red plastic fence is the balcony of the most controversial terrace. The lighting sources seem to have been taken from the Tabernas desert after the gallop of Indiana Jones on the back of Hurricane. Dust and more dust. The top pipe cover is still missing. As we descend steps, he climbs a mountain of books worse placed than a student locker. Already in the laying, some pipes are saturated by the husks of pipes. The squeak of the gang gate, ungreased, resembles that of the dungeons. And the Puerta Grande – not just any door! – shows tourists its gaunt side. Its ceiling, the most portrayed in bullfighting, is a mirror of the passing of time without a cure. So beautiful and so worn… Like the yards of gangs and drag, with bricks that need to be repaired. A fence on the terrace-discotheque g. Navarro Many rubbish bins and little cleaning. As in the tiles that hang in 1. Under Litri’s “stoicism” and Curro’s “duende”, all that remains is for the green-checkered truck to pass. Because if the cotton doesn’t lie, neither do the pants. Many remains at a time when some spectators do not attend the rite but the bottle. The disco has caused division: from those who applaud that it be one more claim for the youth – welcome – to those who consider that the cathedral is desecrated with the ‘lailo-lailo’ and the glasses flying through the corridors even on gored. In that tunnel of white tiles that leads to the rubber, as soon as you enter, two enormous cracks appear. Like those that showed the EGB books of the fault in the earth’s crust. Precisely, the infirmary will have to be remodeled by the company, Plaza 1, as stipulated in the tender specifications. Iron structure, with a box chair inside G. Navarro Many criticisms have been leveled at the Monumental ‘Pacha’ on social networks. But not all young people come to the plaza for the mysterious water rite. There are those with a true fondness for the mystery of the bull. “It is fine to want to attract young people, but that is one thing and another to allow access with a bottle of gin (signs indicate that it is prohibited),” says the president of the Spanish Bullfighting Youth Association, Ignacio Borondo. From his tier 6, he denounces “the decadence: fatal ceilings, faded walls… Very exaggerated flaws, unbecoming of a square that hosts a cultural show.” The unfortunate state of the floor of the G. Navarro alley The truth is that the work of Las Ventas is on its way to outlasting that of the Escorial. Neither with the previous Executive nor with this one was carried out that great reform that will never be, once the Community of Madrid renounced that it become a multipurpose space. The arguments: the total commitment as a bullfighting space and the complexity to undertake it as it is a BIC building. “Las Ventas must be an example for the rest of the bullfighting world and this should not only focus on what happens in the ring, but the infrastructure must be in accordance with the category that the bullring holds,” the members of the bullring wrote in a letter. the El Toro Association to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, much chanted every time she has attended the Monumental for her defense of the Festival, although without missing the banners and messages showing “the great concern” of the fan for the “disastrous” state of the first thing in the world. MORE INFORMATION news Si Luis Miguel Torres: “We trust that the comprehensive reform of the square will be completed in 2024” Now, having overcome the complexities to touch any aspect of a building that Heritage oversees, the Community of Madrid is finally getting hands on to work to remodel it. The ‘Titanic of bullfighting’ does not sink.