In the national literature, there are many discussions about the royal festivities promoted in colonial Brazil. This article aims to analyze one of the activities that most commonly, with higher popularity, are integrated in the program of these events: bullfighting. What space it occupied in these festivities? What kind of symbols surrounding its achievement? How were organized? To answer these questions, we analyze bullfighting promoted in Rio de Janeiro, the city that became successively the capital of the Vice Royalty (1763), of the Portuguese Empire (1808), of the Kingdom of Brazil (1815) and of the independent Brazil (1822).
bullfighting; colonial Brazil; festival; Rio de Janeiro