This animal has been seen by various peoples as a symbol of procreation, genetic strength, invincibility, leadership, fertility, abundance, but also with a great destructive capacity.

In the aftermath, on 19 February 1889 the Lisbon Town Hall conceded a piece of land to Casa Pia for the building of a new bull races space in Campo Pequeno.

At the time though, due to financial complications, Casa Pia conceded the right of construction and exploration of that space to a private company for 90 years.

In 2019, the businessman Álvaro Covões and the Horizon fund, from Pires de Lima and Sérgio Monteiro, won the selling contest and paid 37 million for the arena.

[7] The Campo Pequeno square was projected with an aim to improve the city of Lisbon, taking advantage of the empty spaces still existing in the 19th century and turning them into cosmopolitan areas.

The purpose of these developments was to relieve the pressure of the 200.000 inhabitants that occupied the place up to Passeio Público, the current Restauradores Square.This new area would urbanise and connect different points of the city, with a progressive architectural plan and an eclectic style based on the creation of long avenues.

[8] It is relevant to note that Campo Pequeno was, before urban planning, a very rural space, only with a couple farms, a factory and one building – the Galveias Palace.

It is a gardened place, a shopping centre surrounded by residential buildings, offices, a library, university and banks, which brought to the square a very current Lisbon city life environment.

All this environment created around the Campo Pequeno Square, all the light brought up to the surrounding spaces was only possible with the construction of the new avenues and a policy of dynamization always present in Ressano Garcia's thinking.

The Portuguese architect Dias da Silva is one of the main names behind the construction of this square, alongside Henrique Sabino dos Santos and the French contractor Emile Boussard.

The domes also had inspiration in the Byzantine, Russian and Hindo-Islamic architecture, having similarities with the St Mark's Basilica in Venice and with the S. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

Being a monochromatic building, the movement is given by the rhythm of the forms of the great number of openings in outdated arches and re-entrant frames, inspired by the vanished Plaza de Toros of Madrid (by Emilio Rodriguez Ayuso) which accentuates the Spanish neo-mudéjar revivalism.

It is also important to note that this innovative project aimed to attract investments, by the exceptionality of the architecture as well as to enrich Lisbon and turn it into a more cosmopolitan city.

That's where are located three of the most important stations in terms of richness, diversity and artistic work in natural stone: Campo Pequeno, Saldanha and Entrecampos.

Here, art and geological heritage are intertwined and have the power to dazzle visitors with their beauty, richness and techniques of stone work visible in the inlays from Campo Pequeno's metropolitan station.