Part 4a - Ronda

Continued from Part-3b - Granada: The Alhambra

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A Pleasant Surprise

When planning our trip we looked for a  place in Andalucia to visit near the middle of our trip to provide a change from cities. One requirement: we wanted to bike in the countryside on a route that was interesting but not too challenging for our 75 year old lungs and legs.

We began searching at Spain's Vías Verdes website that features more than 100 "greenways" - bike (and walking) routes that Spain has built on 7,600 kilometers of abandoned railroads. The lengths of the options varied from 1.5 km to 128 km. It took awhile, but we eventually settled on the Via Verde de la Sierra,  a 36 km route from Olvera to Puerto Serrano, both near to Ronda. Its features included both mountains and farming countryside, 4 viaducts, 30 tunnels, stations that had been turned into facilities serving cyclists, and it passes by possibly the largest griffon vulture colony in Europe. It should keep our juices running for part of a day.

At first glance Ronda seemed to be the easiest place to use as a home base. It is easy to get to by rail or bus. It is large enough to be interesting for a few days. It's near the small white towns, so we could visit them during a day trip. Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles had both lived there for a couple of years (ah, that's the way I would really like to travel ... stay a few years in each place and get to know it and its people). A summary of their fondness for Ronda is in this blog.

Orson Welles liked Ronda so much that be decided to have his ashes buried in Ronda. As he said “A man does not belong to the place where he was born, but where he chooses to die”. This blog about Orson Welles and Ronda has a link to a BBC presentation he did in 1955 about the Basque country in Spain.  It brought back childhood memories of things I had read about and saw in the movies when I was completing elementary school at the time. I would think that the area around Ronda must have been similar.

Although the reviews we got from various people about Ronda were a mixed bag, we were very pleasantly surprised. We're glad we decided to stay in Ronda. There was more than enough of interest. We could easily have added a third day here. But as we had planned, we were there for only 2 days. We spent between  a third and a half of one of those days touring the countryside and the nearby white towns, and about the same amount on the second day cycling the Via Verde de la Sierra. The rest of the time we explored Ronda and its history.

Early on we decided we could bike independently and not need a guide; we'd just need bikes and a way to get to/from Olvera and Puerto Serrano (apx. 34 km and 59 km respectively). We researched the web and found Hike+Bike the Sierras. It worked out perfectly. Heather took us on a driving tour to the white towns Grazalema and Zahra de la Sierra. On the next day they drove us and the bikes to Olvera, then after about 3 hours picked us up in Puerto Serrano. More about the white towns and the bike trip in the next part 4b.

When we first arrived in Ronda at the train station a gaggle of passengers gathered at what seemed to be the taxi stand. No taxi was in sight. We waited. None appeared. Several of the passengers got on their cell phone to various taxi companies. None of us could speak Spanish and the taxi people could only speak Spanish. Confusion. No taxis showed up. I called our hotel;  they called the taxi company. Finally some taxis arrived.

Our hotel was the Hotel San Gabriel in the center of the Moorish Quarter. The inside retained its mansion ambiance with tile floors and heavy wooden trim and doors contrasting with white walls. On the walls were pictures and mementos of various celebrities who had stayed there, most appeared to be in the 1950's to '60's.  The breakfast room was small, people had to reserve their sitting the night before. They had a great buffet, but even better, one could also order a fresh cooked breakfast.

The hotel had a typical Spanish interior courtyard.  But late in the day this courtyard was crowded ... it was totally filled with a tangle of bikes. It must have been "interesting" pulling your bike out in the morning getting to it then untangling all of the pedals, chains, and handlebars. But it was a great secure resolution of what to do with all the bikes. It explained the reason that when making reservations we had found so many places full, and why there had been some uncertainty whether there would be appropriately sized rental bikes available. Our visit had unexpectedly coincided with  a major bicycle-related charity ride happening in Ronda the days we were there. It seemed like thousands of spandex-clad cyclists from all over were on the roads in and around Ronda.

An Overview of Ronda

Tilted aerial perspective of Ronda  -  From Google Earth annotated by Lee

Aerial view Legend:
     The Mercadillo Quarter is the newer part of Ronda
     The Moorish Quarter is the older center of Ronda isolated by its cliffs, the gorge, and its walls. 
     A = Bull ring
     B = Puente Nueva (New Bridge) - the iconic bridge that appears in many photos of Ronda
     (El Tajo gorge that separates the Moorish Quarter from the rest of Ronda extends from B to D)
     C = Casa de Rey Moro (The "Water Mine" providing access to the water in the base of the gorge)
     D = Puente Viejo (Old Bridge) and below that the Arab Bridge (also called Roman Bridge)
     E = The Alcazaba (only remnants are left)
     F =  Iglesia del Espititu Santo  (the fortress-like church built immediately after Ronda's conquest)
     G = The Almocábar Gate
     H = Plaza Ruedo Alameda
     I  =  Network of trails to the bottom of the mouth of the gorge

Puente Nueva and the Mouth of the Gorge

Everyone remotely familiar with Ronda has seen photos of its New Bridge (Puente Nueva) that spans the sheer gorge that separates the old Moorish quarter from the rest of the city. (It's appropriately named only if you consider a bridge completed in 1793 to be new.)

On one of our explorations we walked down the trails into the mouth of the gorge.

Puente Nueva (The New Bridge) and the mouth of El Tajo gorge

Panorama looking west from the south end of Puenta Nueva showing the trail to the bottom of the mouth of the gorge

From the south (Moorish Quarter) end of the Puente Nueva, walk along Calle Tenorio to a small park. The trail starts there as a paved pathway with steps that switch-back down (item I in the above map.).

Part way down are several popular viewpoints where photos fill visitors' hard drives and websites.

Further down, the path becomes packed earth. It branches in several directions and passes by remnants of the Moor's outer defensive walls and gates.

Circumnavigate the El Tajo Gorge

After walking down to the mouth of the El Tajo gorge and then back up, you can either sit down to drowsily read through this blog, or you can with more vigor circumnavigate the gorge, and in the process, see the three bridges that span it.

It's surprising - or perhaps unsurprising: On the web there are many mistaken identities where a picture of one bridge of the three is misidentified as another. The best summary of the three bridges that I've seen on the web is here. It has excellent photos and explanations about all three bridges.

We've already looked at the newest bridge, the Puenta Nueva - the New Bridge. It's the highest and most famous; building it took 43 years from 1751 until 1793. It replaced another bridge at the same spot which had only taken 6 years to build shortly before; it had collapsed with about 50 people on it. As the old safety saying says, speed kills.

To see the other two bridges  walk down the narrow winding street Calle Cuesta de Santo Domingo, past where it's closed to auto traffic, and continue along its twisting curves down to the Old Bridge.

Casa del Rey Moro

During the walk stop at the Casa del Rey Moro. It contains a steep, dark, damp stairway cut into the cliffs. It seems like a mine shaft but it's a narrow crevice in the cliffs protected and hidden from the outside by masonry walls. It descends 200 feet to the water in the gorge. 

As the Casa's del Rey Moro's website explains, in 1485, during Ferdinand and Isabella's campaign against Grenada, they laid siege to Ronda. They finally were able to break in and interdict Ronda's source of water. An already greatly weakened and devastated Ronda (more about that later) surrendered in days.

A sign at the entrance warns of its conditions - dark humid slippery steep steps, equivalent to a 20 story building down and then back up (there is no other way back). We passed a few people on our way down who were turning back in retreat.

At the bottom you can appreciate how the gorge formed such an effective defensive barrier to the old town. By looking at the reflection in the water you can see the buildings at the top of the gorge. And on the way back up you can imagine the slaves' lives.

Views
Shortly before reaching the final switchbacks down to the Old Bridge there is a viewpoint with an almost 180 degree view to sweeping from, on the left, the newer part of Ronda (the Mercadillo Quarter) and the Old Bridge, past the fields southeast of Ronda towards the Sierra de las Nieves mountains between Ronda and Marbella on the Mediterranean coast, to on the right, the southern tip of Ronda's Moorish Quarter.

Panorama looking to the southeast

From the viewpoint you can look to the south beyond the Arco de Felipe V (The Arch of Phillip V) to one of the towers on the old Moorish walls and beyond that to the Iglesia del Espititu Santo.

The Bridges
After the collapse of the original bridge at the site of the New Bridge (Peunte Nueva) in 1741, this became a more important route into town. The Arch of Phillip V was constructed in 1741-1742 to replace an older and smaller Moorish arch and its walls and tower.

Philip V was the Philip V of the War of the Spanish Succession. His potential inheritance of several thrones became the lit fuse of a power struggle between the Hapsburgs, the Bourbons, the remnants of the Holy Roman Empire, England, France, and most of Europe. One of its many results: Philip V became king of a united Spain minus some of its possessions.

The road winds down from the arch to the Puente Viejo (the Old Bridge) on which I'm standing. It was built in 1616. Prior to that people had to continue winding steeply down to an even older bridge.

From the Old Bridge you can look down to the older Arab Bridge (also mysteriously called the Roman Bridge although it has noting to do with the Romans - it was built much after their time)
A video of these old bridges in on youtube here.

From the oldest bridge you can look up to see the Old Bridge:

On part of the walking route between the Old Bridge and the older bridge you can chose to walk on very old steps, or newer steps, or let each leg independently walk on whichever it chooses.

Various walls, towers, archways, and doorways are on the east side of the Moorish Quarter and in, above, and south of the areas of the two bridges. Most of them not as well known as other sites in Ronda. If we had stayed in Ronda for a third day we would have explored them for a few hours. You can read about them here, and along with the other walls and gates of old Ronda, here, and here.

After you walk back up to the Old Bridge you can continue walking up on the east (new town) side of the gorge to complete the circumnavigation. In the mid 1970's the Jardines de Cuenca or de la Mina was built, a nicely landscaped series of gardens and terraces overlooking the gorge on its east side.

Moorish Quarter & Its Defenses

There is a map of the remaining Arabic walls (murallas) and gates (puertas) of Ronda (I believe by Tourismoderonda) on Google's My Maps (an image of it is below). It can be found as an interactive map here.

Map of walls and gates of old Ronda from Google's My Maps here

We met Washington Irving while visiting The Alhambra (see Part 3b: Granada: The Alhambra).
In his Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada in "Chapter XXII, Foray of the Moorish Alcaydes, and Battle of Lopera" he describes the people of 15th Century Ronda:

"Ronda was the most virulent nest of Moorish depredators in the whole border country. It was situated in the midst of the wild Serrania, or chain of mountains of the same name, which are uncommonly lofty, broken, and precipitous. It stood on an almost isolated rock, nearly encircled by a deep valley, or rather chasm, through which ran the beautiful river called Rio Verde. The Moors of this city were the most active, robust, and warlike of all the mountaineers, and their very children discharged the crossbow with unerring aim. They were incessantly harassing the rich plains of Andalusia; their city abounded with Christian captives, who might sigh in vain for deliverance from this impregnable fortress. Such was Ronda in the time of the Moors, and it has ever retained something of the same character, even to the present day. Its inhabitants continue to be among the boldest, fiercest, and most adventurous of the Andalusian mountaineers, and the Serrania de Ronda is famous as the most dangerous resort of the bandit and the contrabandista."

How true does that ring? Was that part of why macho bullfighting developed so thoroughly in Ronda and why Ernest Hemingway liked the countryside and culture around it?

In "Chapter XXX, Siege of Ronda" Irving describes the siege of Ronda vividly.

Unfortunately for the Moors, fortunately for the Christians, the Moorish ruler and many of his soldiers were still en route home from a victory over another town when the siege began. He could not break through the encircling forces:

"While the marques was thus pressing the siege with the generous thought of soon delivering his companions-in-arms from the Moorish dungeons, far other were the feelings of the alcayde, Hamet el Zegri. He smote his breast and gnashed his teeth in impotent fury as he beheld from the mountain-cliffs the destruction of the city. Every thunder of the Christian ordnance seemed to batter against his heart. He saw tower after tower tumbling by day, and various parts of the city in a blaze at night. “They fired not merely stones from their ordnance,” says a chronicler of the times, “but likewise great balls of iron cast in moulds, which demolished everything they struck. They threw also balls of tow steeped in pitch and oil and gunpowder, which, when once on fire, were not to be extinguished, and which set the houses in flames. Great was the horror of the inhabitants: they knew not where to fly for refuge: their houses were in a blaze or shattered by the ordnance; the streets were perilous from the falling ruins and the bounding balls, which dashed to pieces everything they encountered. At night the city looked like a fiery furnace; the cries and wailings of the women between the thunders of the ordnance reached even to the Moors on the opposite mountains, who answered them by yells of fury and despair.'"  

One of the major Moorish fortifications of Ronda was the Alcazaba. Not much is left. The information sign says:

"Partially destroyed during the siege of Ronda in 1485 and subsequently, by French troops in the War of Independence (1812), the building suffered its most recent damage at the beginning of the 20th Century as a result of widening the Street of Imágense and the construction of the Castillo School.

"What remains today still contains a large part of the original Moorish structure, although this has been obscured by redressing of its walls and subsequent building work. At first sight it appears to be a fortified construction of the 14th Century but in all likelihood its origins are far earlier, We know that it already existed in the 11th Century.

"Its position gives it the greatest importance on the whole of the city of Ronda, as it takes advantage of a rocky spur situated on the south, adapted with at least two lines of walls, of which the outer one can be seen. Inside, the castle itself was protected by a strong towered wall, the keep being situated in the easterly side facing the city.

"The entire entrance to the city could be controlled from the Alcazaba and the two quarters, forming, along with the now disappeared Las Imágenes Gate, a practically unconquerable defensive system vulnerable only to siege."

Partial remains of the Alcazaba below more modern construction

The Iglesia del Espititu Santo (Church of the Holy Spirit) was started in 1485, immediately after the Christian conquest. It was built on the site of one of the major destroyed defensive towers and the principle mosque of Ronda.

The church was built is a defensive manner to try to ensure its safety. Maybe that was wise because of the mix of the Catholic treatment of the Moors and Ronda's "virulent nest of Moorish depredators" as described by Washington Irving.

It was a bad time.

"On May 25, 1566, Philip II decreed the use of the Arabic language (written or spoken) illegal, required that doors to homes remain open on Fridays to verify that no Muslim Friday prayers were conducted, and levied heavy taxes on Morisco trades. This led to several rebellions, one of them in Ronda under the leadership of Al-Fihrey. Al-Fihrey's soldiers defeated the Spanish army sent to suppress them under the leadership of Alfonso de Aguilar. The massacre of the Spaniards prompted Phillip II to order the expulsion of all Moriscos in Ronda. (quoted from Wikipedia, here)

Upon the above light notes, let's go to dinner ... we can eat in the Plaza Ruedo Alameda just past the southern walls.

Immediately south of the former Alcazar a portion of the southern walls remains, including the 13th century gate: Puerta de Almocábar tucked between two towers.

Instead of walking through the Puerta de Almocábar we can either drive or walk through the adjacent
Carlos V gate dating from the 16th Century. And if the beer in a local bar wasn't enough we can grab a drink of water like these guys are doing.

The story of the gates is here and here.

There are stairways to the tops of the wall and its gates. From there we had a good view of the large Plaza Ruedo Alameda.

The plaza is surrounded by restaurants and bars. Although there were other tourists like us, many of the people in the plaza and the area surrounding it seemed to be residents from nearby.

There was a large and very children's active play area.  Public spaces are needed and highly used where, like many places in Spain, most people live happily without private yards.

We tend to eat earlier than most Spaniards, so the restaurant was fairly empty when we got there, but was very busy by the time we left.  (We had one of the best meals we had in Spain while eating here.)

The life in Spain's plazas was one of our favorite things about Spain. Adults would gather and socialize while their kids played. Then gradually all would move to the tables to eat, followed by more socializing and playing.

There was a soccer ball in the plaza that seemed to be communal. We watched various groups of kids playing with it at different times.  A family that I'm guessing was from Scandinavia was at a table near us. Their kid kept begging them to let him go play. Eventually they assented and he quickly made friends and joined in kicking the soccer ball around.

But enough of history. It's time to relax and have fun, do some light touring, and bike on the Via Verde de la Sierra.

But first...
To relax for a bit, listen to this 5 minute long piano recital outdoors alongside a lake .

Last year Hunter and his "In A Landscape" team held a series of outdoor piano concerts set in remote places throughout Oregon (much of Eastern Oregon is dry and has rocky landscapes similar to Spain). Last year LA Times ran a good article about it here.

This year, because of coronavirus, he's had to postpone the series. Hopefully the series will be back next year - or even sooner:  hopefully their app will develop to allow people to social distance while wandering in the landscape listening remotely.
And hopefully tourism will again help to weld the people of our small planet together.



To return to Part 1 - Overview of the Trip, click here.
Next: Part 4b - the White Towns and Biking the Via Verde de la Sierra - click here.