This is the largest bullring in Spain. With 23,798 spectators, it is the third largest bullring in the world, after those of Mexico and Valencia, in Venezuela. It is also the second largest in terms of the diameter of its bullring - 61.5 metres - after Ronda.

It is located at number 237 Calle de Alcalá, in the La Guindalera neighbourhood of the Salamanca district. The nearest metro station is Ventas. It can be accessed from the M-30 via the Ventas Bridge. It can be visited inside every day from 10 am to 6 pm, in a tour that includes the interior of the bullring and the Bullfighting Museum.

In June 2018, work began on the refurbishment of the bullring to improve its safety and comfort, especially with a view to holding non-bullfighting events, which will lead to a reduction in its capacity of between 200 and 2,500 seats.

It was inaugurated on 17 June 1931, with the name of Plaza de Las Ventas del Espíritu Santo, after the name of the area at the time, in a bullfight for the benefit of the unemployed workers organised by the Mayor of Madrid, Pedro Rico. With a full house, eight matadors took part: Fortuna, Marcial Lalanda, Nicanor Villalta, Fausto Barajas, Fuentes Bejarano, Vicente Barrera, Armillita Chico and Manolo Bienvenida.

The bull that opened the bullring for the first time was from the Juan Pedro Domecq bull-ranch, originally owned by the Duke of Veragua. The accesses to the bullring had not yet been completed, so no bullfights were held again until two years later, in 1933, when there were two: the Misses' Bullfight, so called because it coincided with a women's beauty contest, and the Press Bullfight. The former featured Villalta, El Estudiante and Maravilla, who cut an ear from each bull in his batch. The journalists' bullfight was a mano a mano between Armillita Chico and Domingo Ortega, who won a trophy for each bull.

Its definitive inauguration took place on 21st October 1934, with Juan Belmonte, Marcial Lalanda and Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega on the bill. From 21st October 1934, once the bullring on the Aragón road was closed, bullfights began to be held continuously in the same month: "Three end-of-season shows with two ears and a tail for Juan Belmonte, who alternated with Marcial Lalanda and Cagancho, also with the Muruban bulls of Carmen de Federico. In the second of the bullfights, Marcial obtained the second tail in the history of the bullring", wrote José Luis Suárez-Guanes in the pages of the ABC newspaper.

The most important event in the life of the bullring took place in 1947, when Livinio Stuyck created the Feria de San Isidro (San Isidro Fair), a season ticket that grouped together the bullfights held in the month of May, which meant a revival for the Monumental de Las Ventas.

After more than a decade of exploitation of the building, owned by the Community of Madrid, by the Lozano brothers with the companies Toresma and Toresma, in 2005 the company Taurovent, with José Antonio Martínez Uranga "Choperita" at the head, obtained the concession of the bullring. Similarly, at the end of 2006 and for reasons unrelated to the world of bullfighting, the specifications for the awarding of the bullring were reissued and won by the company Taurodelta whose managers are José Antonio Martínez Uranga together with his wife and children. In 2016 the management of the bullring was left in the hands of the UTE, formed by Simón Casas and the company Nautalia Viajes for a period of four years.