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50 free Bullfighting trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Bullfighting is one of the oldest, most ritualised and most argued-about spectacles in the world, and it comes with a vocabulary all its own. This quiz covers the corrida from Francisco Romero fighting on foot in Ronda around 1726, through Juan Belmonte's revolutionary style and Manolete's death at Linares, to Cristina Sánchez and the modern bans in Catalonia, Colombia and Mexico City. It explains the three tercios, the picador and the peto, banderillas, the muleta and the estocada, ears and tails, and the rare indulto that spares a brave bull. It also travels beyond Spain: the forcados and cavaleiros of Portugal, the rosette-snatching course camarguaise of southern France, the running of the bulls at Pamplona, jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, Japanese togyu, Ferdinand the Bull and Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon. There is a section on the sport's origins in Minoan bull-leaping and Roman games too. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has read Hemingway or watched San Fermin on the news, a third are medium and the rest are for true aficionados. Every answer is verified against reference pages and each question carries its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who is generally credited with introducing the practice of fighting bulls on foot, around 1726 in Ronda?
Francisco Romero
Before him, bullfighting was a mounted pastime for noblemen with lances; his grandson Pedro founded the classical Ronda school.
Q 02Which matador is credited with the modern bullfighting style of staying within centimetres of the bull?
Juan Belmonte
He was gored many times for it; like Hemingway, who admired him, Belmonte died by his own hand in 1962.
Q 03How is a traditional Spanish corrida made up?
Three matadors, two bulls each
Each bull is four to six years old and weighs at least 460 kg.
Q 04The bullfight is divided into three stages known by what Spanish name?
Tercios
Each begins with a bugle call: the lancing third, the banderillas third and the third of death.
Q 05The matador's glittering costume is known as what?
Traje de luces
It means suit of lights; the lesser banderilleros in silver are known as toreros de plata.
Q 06The large cape used in the first stage of a bullfight is which two colours?
Magenta and gold
The smaller red cloth only appears in the final stage.
Q 07What is the mounted lancer in a bullfight called?
Picador
He stabs behind the morrillo, the mound of neck muscle, so that the bull carries its head lower for the rest of the fight.
Q 08The padded covering that protects the lancer's horse is called what?
Peto
Before 1930 horses were unprotected, and more horses than bulls typically died at a fiesta.
Q 09Roughly when did picadors' horses begin wearing protection in Spanish bullfights?
Around 1930
Until then the bull would often disembowel the horse during the lancing stage.
Q 10The barbed sticks planted into the bull's shoulders in the second stage are called what?
Banderillas
Each of three banderilleros tries to place two of them, and a matador sometimes places his own.
Q 11The small red cloth used by the matador in the final stage is called what?
Muleta
The colour is tradition rather than provocation; the bull is functionally colourblind and charges at movement.
Q 12Why does the bull charge the matador's red cloth?
It reacts to the movement, not the colour
The cloth is thought to have been made red to mask the bull's blood.
Q 13The killing thrust with the sword is known as what?
Estocada
The matador aims between the shoulder blades over the horns; if the bull does not fall, a dagger-like descabello severs the spinal column.
Q 21Manolete, the great matador of the 1940s, died in 1947 after being gored in which town?
Linares
The bull was a Miura named Islero; Manolete's death left Spain in shock.
Q 22What was the name of the Miura bull that killed Manolete?
Islero
The bull's horns turn up as a macabre souvenir in an episode of The Blacklist.
Q 23El Cordobés, the 1960s star known for his acrobatic style, took his nickname from which city?
Córdoba
Born Manuel Benítez Pérez, he also acted in films and famously placed banderillas with his back to the charging bull.
In which year did Ángela Hernández win a Supreme Court case overturning Spain's 1908 ban on women bullfighters?
Q 14During most of his final performance the matador uses a fake sword made of what?
Wood or aluminium
It is lighter to handle; he switches to the steel estoque de verdad only for the kill.
Q 15The whole final performance with the red cloth, a linked dance of passes, is called what?
Faena
It is broken into tandas, or series, and the matador heightens the drama by drawing the horns close to his body.
Q 16How does the crowd petition the president to award a matador an ear of the bull?
By waving white handkerchiefs
An exceptional performance earns two ears, and in some rural rings the tail as well.
Q 17What is an indulto in bullfighting?
A pardon that spares the bull's life
A pardoned bull returns to its ranch as a seed-bull for the rest of its life; it happens very rarely.
Q 18The opening parade in which the participants salute the presiding dignitary is called what?
Paseíllo
The costumes are inspired by 17th-century Andalusian dress and a band plays them in.
Q 19The ceremony at which a bullfighter is formally promoted to full matador is called what?
Alternativa
Before it, they fight younger bulls as novilleros; Cristina Sánchez was the first woman to complete hers in Europe.
Q 20Which is the largest bullring in the world?
Plaza México, Mexico City
It seats 41,000; the oldest bullrings are the 18th-century plazas of Seville and Ronda.
1974
The torera La Reverte had earlier got round the 1908 ban by claiming to have been assigned male at birth.
Q 25Cristina Sánchez, who rose to prominence in the 1990s, was the first woman to do what?
Complete her alternativa in Europe
She was born in Madrid in 1972; Bette Ford had been the first American woman to fight on foot in the Plaza México decades earlier.
Q 26Which nickname did matador Juan José Padilla earn on returning after a 2011 goring cost him an eye?
The Pirate
He came back with an eyepatch and titanium plates in his skull.
Q 27The Madrid hospital that specialises in treating matadors' horn wounds is called what?
Sanatorio de los Toreros
Over three centuries 534 professional bullfighters have died in the ring or from injuries sustained there.
Q 28The main difference between Portuguese and Spanish bullfighting is what?
The bull is not killed in front of the audience
Oxen are let in to lead the bull out, and it is usually killed later by a butcher; some brave bulls are healed and used for breeding.
Q 29In Portuguese bullfighting, what are the eight men who grab the bull bare-handed called?
Forcados
The frontman provokes the charge and secures the animal's head in a pega de cara, or face grab.
Q 30The Portuguese cavaleiro fights the bull from the back of which breed of horse?
Lusitano
The aim is to plant three or four bandeiras, small javelins, in the bull's back.