So I found a strange building on Google Maps as I was planning a walk around our latest (temporary) home. And this odd, round (ish) building came into view … and I just had to know what it was.

I should have been prepared to be disappointed. LOL!

First I walked down there to try to peek over the walls and look for clues. Alas, the walls were four times my height and everything was locked up, long since abandoned. No signs anywhere except for a single newish one on the outside wall that really didn’t seem to make sense.

That was until I found the 3D button on Maps. This thing originbally looked vaguely like an old bullfighting ring, but when you look at it from an angle there are no seating areas. And it has an odd wall running right down the middle. It’s also like a fortress inside of a fortress, but it isn’t nearly so old as to be that. So the puzzle continued.

The sign on the outside had a single word “Ruedo” and had a picture of a bull underneath it. Ruedo is a bullfighting term meaning the ring/arena itself. But the sign looks only a few years old and the building has been long dormant … like for decades.

So I tried to find who owns it, and the name of the company made little sense because it was a hospitality group. And then I found the address listed twice as a disco/nightclub. A-ha, said I!

Have you figured it out yet?

Now I have no proof because there is nothing else online, but it appears that this was once a private bull training complex. The inside/outside ring clearly provides access to “pasture” and the walls/overhangs seem to have something to do with handling livestock. A holding pen, perhaps? A place where they worked with the bulls, preparing them for the arena?

Could be either, could be neither. But …

The outside sign and the fact that the building is now owned by a nightclub company screams that someone once had the grand idea of turning the joint into a venue of a different kind. My guess is that they slapped up a sign and … probably couldn’t raise capital, so they just let everything sit and rot.

I really wanted this to be a “real something” I could visit. The bones of the place are so unique. I seriously want to turn it into a homestead in the middle of a city, but from my walkaround, it’s so close to falling down that I get why it never took off as a nightclub. Plus the neighborhood ain’t exactly an “up and comer”. So this is kind of a sad tale.

Anyway, it got me walking and wondering. Stay curious my friends!

~ Rick