The Beauty of Cliffside City of Ronda — Spain

Ronda is situated in a very mountainous area about 750 m above mean sea level. The Guadalevín River runs through the city, dividing  it  in two and  carving  out the steep, 100 plus meters deep El Tajo canyon upon which the city perches. The Spanish Fir (Abies pinsapo) is endemic to the mountains surrounding Ronda.

Three bridges,  Puente Romano (“Roman Bridge”, also known as the  Puente San Miguel) ,  Puente Viejo  (“Old Bridge”, also known as the Puente Árabe or “Arab Bridge”) and Puente Nuevo (“New Bridge”), span the canyon. The term “nuevo” is a  bit  of  a  misnomer, as the  building of this bridge  commenced  in  1751  and took until  1793  to  complete. The Puente Nuevo  is the  tallest of  the bridges, towering  120 metres (390 ft) above the canyon floor, and all three serve as some of the city’s most impressive features.

 

The ‘Corrida Goyesca’ is a  unique and historical  bullfight  that takes place once a year in Ronda in the Plaza de toros de Ronda, the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain. It was built in 1784 in the Neoclassical style by the architect José Martin de Aldehuela, who also designed the Puente Nuevo.

 

The partially intact Baños árabes (“Arab baths”) are found below the city and date back to the 13th and 14th centuries.

 

The former  town hall, which sits next to the Puente Nuevo,  is the site of a parador, and has a view of the Tajo canyon.

American artists Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles spent many summers in Ronda as part-time residents of Ronda’s old town quarter called La Ciudad. Both wrote about Ronda’s beauty and famous bull-fighting traditions. Their collective accounts have contributed to Ronda’s popularity over time.

 

In the first decades of the 20th century the famous German   poet Rainer Maria Rilke  spent extended  periods  in Ronda. There he kept a permanent room at the Hotel Reina Victoria (built in 1906) where his room remains to this day as he left it, a mini-museum of Rilkeana. According to  the hotel’s  publicity, Rilke  wrote “I have sought everywhere the city of my dreams, and I  have  finally found  it in Ronda” and ” There is  nothing  that   is more  startling in  Spain  than this wild and mountainous city.”)

 

 

 

English writer George Elliot’s book Daniel De Ronda (“Daniel of Ronda”) tells the story of a Spanish Jew brought up as an Englishman. There has been some speculation that Eliot’s ancestors may have lived in Ronda prior to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

In the fashion world, Italian designer Giorgio Armani specially designed the bullfighting costume called ‘Goyesco’ for famed bullfighter Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez on the occasion of the ‘Corrida Goyesca’ that took place on September 6, 2009, in Ronda. Cayetano’s suit of lights was in the Goyaesque style, comprising a jacket, trousers and cloak in techno-satin. The three pieces are embroidered with sequins, small glitter stones and thread, all matching the color of the background fabric.