Merida - Plaza de Toros

In the Roman Empire, the city was known as "Emerita Augusta", the capital of the province of Lusitania. It was founded in 25 BC by Emperor Augustus as a colony for the veteran soldiers ("emeritus") of the Roman legions. The city was very important in Roman Hispania. It was endowed with all the comforts of a large Roman city and served as the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania. For centuries, until the fall of the Roman Empire, Mérida was an important economic, military, and cultural center.

Following invasions from the Visigoths, Mérida remained an important city of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania in the 6th century. In 713, the Arabs conquered the city and devastated it. Even under Islamic rule, Mérida remained a bishop's seat until it was moved to Santiago de Compostela in 1119.

In 1230 the Christian troops under Alfonso IX conquered Mérida during the Reconquista.

Mérida has a long bullfighting tradition, linked primarily to bullfights organized by brotherhoods, such as the bullfight organized in 1460 by the Brotherhood of San Gregorio Ostiense, patron saint against plagues of locusts.

Construction of the bullring began in 1902 but continued until the 1920s. During the Spanish Civil War, the bullring was opened in 1939 as part of the city's Franco concentration camp, which was intended to house a total of 9,000 internees.