Travel Spain In his classic work, “Death in the Afternoon,” Ernest Hemingway described Ronda as the perfect place to go if you don't want to be found.
Spain’s Little Gem
This small Andalusian town, set high above a gorge, enchants all who behold it By Fred J. Eckert
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t ' s a da z z l i n g s e t t i n g . Perched at an isolated point in the sierra upon a lofty shelf 2,460 feet above sea level—with a commanding vista of the wide, barren plains below and the circle of dark, jagged mountains in the distance—the town of Ronda is cut into two unequal parts by a spectacular gorge formed by the Guadalevin River. The town is a natural, almost impregnable, fortress. First the Celts then the Romans held it, but it was the Moors who did the most masterful job of fortifying it. They ruled here until just a few years before the fall of Granada. It finally fell to the Christian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1485 after a strenuous siege that required 25,000 infantrymen and 13,000 cavalry and marked the Spanish army’s first recorded use of iron cannonballs. The gorge, El Tajo de Ronda, is breathtaking— around 400 feet deep, more than 1,600 feet
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long, and 220 feet wide at its widest point. Picturesque whitewashed homes cling to its cliffs. Some of them have narrow steps that trail down the sheer edges to the river far below. A bunch of birds—rock doves, choughs, and crag martins—whirl around it. The old town, known as Ciudad, stands on the south side of the deep gorge and clings atop precipitous cliffs on its other three sides as well. It's joined to the newer (post-1485) part of town at the narrowest point of the gorge by the spectacular 18th-century Puente Nuevo arched bridge. Besides the Puente Nuevo (“New Bridge”) that was built in 1761—the only bridge that spans the gorge—two other, even older bridges are landmarks of old Ronda. One is a 17th-century work, which, like the Puente Nuevo, still carries vehicular traffic. The lowest and oldest bridge, which the Moors built in the 14th century, is used only for pedestrian traffic.
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SPAIN SEVILLE
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COSTA DEL SOL
Ronda is only one hour from the beaches of the Costa del Sol and two hours from Seville.
