Ronda, Malaga, Andalucia

Ronda

Ronda is a city in the Spanish province of Andalusia. It is located about 100 km from the city of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is 35,512. It is also accessible by rail from Algeciras and from Córdoba.

Ronda is situated in a very mountainous area about 750 m above mean sea level. The Rio Guadalevín runs through the city, dividing it in two and carving out the steep El Tajo canyon upon which the city is perched. Ronda was first settled by the early Celts, but its Roman and then Moorish rulers are reflected most prominently in its architecture. The forces of Catholic Spain took control of the town in 1485.

Three bridges, Puente Romano ("Roman Bridge", also known as the Puente San Miguel), Puente Viejo ("Old Bridge", also known as the Puente Arabe or "Arab Bridge") and Puente Nuevo ("New Bridge"), span the canyon. The term "nuevo" is a bit of a misnomer, since this bridge was completed in 1793. The Puente Nuevo is the tallest of the bridges, towering 120 metres above the canyon floor, and all three serve as some of the city's most impressive features.

Another important site in Ronda is the Plaza de toros de Ronda, the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain that is still used, albeit infrequently. It was built in 1784 in the Neoclassical style by the architect José Martin de Aldehuela, who also designed Puente Nuevo.

The partially intact baños árabes ("Arab baths") are found below the city and date back to the 13th and 14th centuries. Both the Sufi scholar Salih ben Sharif al-Rundi (1204-1285) and the poet Ibn Abbad al-Rundi (1333-1390) were born in Ronda.

Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles resided in Ronda for many years, and both wrote about its beauty, contributing to its popularity.

Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls describes the murder of Nationalist sympathizers early in the Spanish Civil War by being thrown from cliffs in a Castilian village, allegedly based on the killings that took place on Ronda's cliffs of El Tajo by the Republican forces.

The name of the eponymous Jewish hero of George Eliot's well-known novel Daniel Deronda seems to indicate that his ancestors lived in Ronda prior to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

The Spanish Fir (Abies pinsapo) is endemic to the mountains surrounding Ronda.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ronda