Bull fighting in Croatia – Radošic
Recently some of the other expats called me and ask if we wanted to go and see bull fighting, well I must say I got a bit surprises hearing that bullfighting exist in Croatia? Normally I have always connected that with Spain, so of course we accepted the invitation as we where curious to see how Croatian bull fighting takes places in Croatia.
The event took place on a Saturday in a small place called Radošic, which is in the middle of now where app. 30 km from Split, as we arrived I got quite surprised by all the cars? And as our expat friends told us that the place was practically empty compared to the prior years, I realised that this event was much much bigger then I had imagined?
By the entrance we encountered the first bull; luckily this was one of the more friendly kinds as you can see on the picture below.
As we arrived by the arena, I realized we where not going to see bullfighting like the one i know from Spain, no in Radosic it was two bull fighting each other!
Before everything started it was possible to inspected the contesters in the “box”, Wow these bulls where big, the kids where of course trilled to see these big animals, I personally imagined what could happened if you encountered a bull of this size face to face 
As the first “match” started there was about 3-4000 people gathered around the arena, all of them cheering and hoping to see some action, well unfortunately that didn’t happened the first two contester did the warm up, but then decide to just have a walk around the arena, the crows of course disliked this, so eventually the contester where taken back to the box! Same thing happened by the second match.
Finally at the third “match” action happened, the 700 kilo guys encountered in too a short but powerful match, the match did not take much more then 30 seconds before one of the bulls withdraw limping on one leg.
We stayed and watch a few more fights before we decided to head back to Split, now we know how bullfighting is in Croatia, apparently there is a few more events like this one take place in other areas around Split.
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hi,
receiving your newsletter, I was pleased to read about the bullfight in radosic.
we went there long time ago (before the war) when it was still an free festival on a different location.
and however we liked the original festival much more, it’s still a nice event to visit, with traditional music, some”local “olympic sports” and of course enough janjetine to eat and beer to drink.
an other thing to advice to each local from Split-area and tourists (specially on a hot day) is to visit spilja Vranjataca, not far from Dugo Polje, and a real nice family trip.
the cave is magnificant to enter, with hundreds exiting stone shapes, and many hidden corners and of coarse stalagtites- and mites.
it’s easy to enter and well lighted, and the owner Marco is a nice guy with lots of information and excellent oragovic (secret, but known by his friends).
and if in need of a cold drink or coffe, no problem, fair prices, as goes for the entrance fee.
don’t wait till the sun is melting your head, just plan that little trip.
pozdravi, pim u svinisce.
Hi Pin
thanks for you insides on Radosic.
We visited Vranjaca a few years ago, we actually at that time was planning to sell tickets at our internet location http://www.croatia-expert.com/the-cave-in-vranjaca/
Morten
Interesting story, I had not heard about bullfighting in Croatia before, I would certainly not want to get in a ring with those.
What happened to the bulls after the fight was over? does the winner win a reprieve?
hi Chris,
to answer your question:
after the “fight” the bulls simply return home to their loved ones.
and of course a good bull gets a bit extra attention from the girls.
by the way, visitors to Croatia should get away from the coast once in a while, as life behind the coast is highly interesting and worth a trip around.
(ever seen water flowing from under a rock ? no ?, than go to Grab or Cetina, both amazing starts of rivers, for nature lovers a must !).
Grab a simple beauty with working watermill, Cetina with very old church remains and an historically interesting graveyard (lot’s of Cetniks resting there, but that’s because its a familyname).
go and enjoy the pure countryside, greetings, pim.
yeah wow, I never would have thought there was bull fighting in Croatia either. I too associate it with Spain or over here in South America. I admire the courage these guys have when stepping into the arena with such a large and intimidating animal. This twist on it seems like a more fair match up.( more fair for the bulls). I’ll stick to my Galapagos tortoises; I can out run them.
This is exciting, I wanna try this one when I will visit Croatia. Time will come that I can go. And time can only tell when can I go. Haha! This is cool. I once witnessed bull fighting during a town fiesta in Philippines during my visit. It’s really scary yet exciting. Nerve frazzling experience. And take note, the bull in Croatia are so huge. Love it. =)
I know this is somewhat of a weird question…but im doing a project on bullfighting and im trying to find more info for it…..if u could tell me the exact species of bull that would be great…..one website already told me a certain species of bull is used for it but it didnt say which one…so if anyone knows the answer that would be a great help…thx
Have no clue what species the use, sorry