Union of French Bullfighting Towns

The Union des Villes Taurines de France (UVTF), also known as the Union of French Bullfighting Towns, is a French association established in 1966 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône. It is a loi de 1901 non-profit organization that brings together municipalities where bullfighting (corrida) is a local tradition. Its primary mission is to oversee the application of municipal bullfighting regulations, ensuring the defense and preservation of bullfights with death and preventing abuses in the presentation of fighting bulls. The UVTF also engages in cultural promotion, describing bullfighting as a universal cultural heritage and a practice that preserves biodiversity. The association maintains a website (uvtf.fr) that provides news, an agenda, and resources such as a catalog and DVD on universal tauromachies. Membership includes numerous towns across southern France, such as Arles, Bayonne, Dax, Nîmes, and Mont-de-Marsan. The UVTF is not a sports federation but a municipal union, and its regulations are widely referenced in French bullfighting literature and media.

The Union des Villes Taurines de France (UVTF) was created in 1966 in Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department. It is an association under the French law of 1901. Its founding context is tied to the legal status of bullfighting in France: the Grammont Law of 2 July 1850, which condemned animal cruelty, prohibited corrida except where an uninterrupted local tradition could be invoked. Because no national sports federation for bullfighting exists, regulation has remained a municipal matter. In 1972, the UVTF established its own bullfighting regulation, the Règlement de l'Union des villes taurines françaises, largely inspired by the Spanish bullfighting regulation. It invited member municipalities to make this regulation mandatory on their territory by municipal decree. Not all municipalities did so, but the regulation is customarily applied in member towns and even in some non-member bullfighting towns. The UVTF continues to serve as a reference for bullfighting regulation in France, and its texts are cited in most French books and media coverage on the corrida.

• 1972

  UVTF establishes its bullfighting regulation, inspired by the Spanish regulation.

• 1966

  UVTF founded in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône.

Municipal union for the defense and regulation of bullfighting traditions in France.

1. 1Accueil - Union des Villes Taurines de Franceuvtf.fr
2. 2Union des villes taurines françaises - Wikipédiafr.wikipedia.org
3. 3Bullfighting Village Union of France - Wikidatawikidata.org