Ronda: the most beautiful city in the sunlight

«If you ever go to Spain, it is to Ronda where you should go. The entire city and its surroundings are a romantic setting ». Ernest Hemingway was seduced by the influence of the Malaga city, whose history and appearance overwhelm me as soon as I set foot on it.

«If you ever go to Spain, it is to Ronda where you should go. The entire city and its surroundings are a romantic setting ». Ernest Hemingway He felt seduced by the influence of the city of Malaga, whose history and appearance overwhelm me as soon as I set foot on it. Although I have time to enjoy this trip, I do not remain oblivious to the first impression that Ronda gives me: his defiance of the law of gravity on a huge vertical wall of rocks. I observe how the city assumes the division that the Guadalevin River, threadbare, that crosses the urban center forming a spectacular gorge that surpasses the 100 meters deep between feral cats and fallen garbage.

Ronda is a compendium of beauties, It is a pearl set in the heart of its mountains, a city divided in two. It is divided into three neighborhoods: the city, what is the old neighborhood, medieval; the flea market, which is the one that emerged later, and the modern suburbs. All this fabric invites me to stroll through the old city, follow the arab walls, pass under the arch of the Almocábar gate (13th century) while I contemplate the beautiful examples of civil architecture, or stroll through the hanging gardens of the House of the Moorish King, decimononic. Called by these foreigners Izn-Rand Onda, Before Ronda was the Roman Acinipo and before, at the Celtic Arunda.

Ernest Hemingway was seduced by the influence of the Malaga city

Two locals who pass by recommend that I look at the strange pilasters in the figure of executed people that support the baroque temple of the Sorrows and the collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor. Clearly, wise advice; It is a Gothic and Baroque Renaissance prodigy on traces of the old mosque. The Church of the Holy Spirit was also built on top of a mosque., my next stop, that completes a religious itinerary that runs through the Church of Our Father Jesus, in the Mercadillo neighborhood, the convent of San Francisco (ordered to be built by the Catholic Monarchs), the convent of Santo Domingo (former headquarters of the Inquisition), the hermitage of the Virgin of Gracia and the convent of the Mother of God.

The traveler's steps quickly lead towards the most notable mined passage in Spain. I discover that it has 365 steps, one for each day of the year. I embark on a journey that saves some 60 vertical meters, with very narrow and broken flights of stairs. A place as peculiar as this is not without legend. I can read it in the cross marked on the stone halfway along the route.. Tradition maintains that it was made by a Christian slave with no other tool than the thumbnail..

Tradition maintains that the passage was made by a Christian slave with no other tool than his thumbnail.

I will not leave Ronda without taking, at least, a quick look at the bullring, which they claim is the oldest in Spain. Built in 1785 instead of a previous one that was made of wood, I join, to reach, to a group of tourists whose guide with an Andalusian accent explains, with pride, that Francisco Romero must have fought in this arena, the first to use a rapier and to invent the luck of receiving. A stone square, but with a very special wooden barrier, that of the pinsapo. Today it would be unthinkable to use this tree, relic from the ice age and very protected. More than the square itself, What catches my attention the most about this place is the Bandit Museum, which preserves a room dedicated to the figure of José María Hinojosa, The Tempranillo.

The mountain range, once a refuge for famous bandits, appears like a mountainous region with a rugged profile

The surroundings of Ronda do not detract from it. Its mountain range appears like a mountainous region with a rugged profile, which was once a refuge for famous bandits, with hills where flocks graze and limestone formations over which eagles fly. But first I will get closer, if fatigue does not prevent me, until the Pool Cave. An attentive girl from the tourist office outlined her little story to me, that is worth visiting. Discovered in 1905 and declared a National Monument, contains an important set of cave paintings of goats, horses or deer. It's just 14 kilometers from Ronda.

After a day of historical walking, I think I will have to make the words of the Nobel Prize my own. I conclude my pleasant traveling experience by paraphrasing another writer, Juan Goytisolo: «In the light of the sun Ronda is the most beautiful city in the world». Nothing is further from reality.

 

If you want to read more stories from Javier Ramos: www.lugaresconhistoria.com

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