Ronda and the area - a little light history... ...

Prehistoric remains are a feature of the area. Clearly tourists clad in animal skins found the environs of Ronda as amenable as we do today, whether we be dressed by Armani or Oxfam, rather than those fetching mammoth skin cloaks.

Try visiting the nearby villages of Montejaque and Benaojan to taste a little prehistory. Here, just outside the villages, are caves and here also are Paleolithic cave drawings of great antiquity and great vigour. One of the little bodegas (Bar El Rincon) in the main square at Montejaque has an owner who talks with great enthusiasm about the caves and who has, in the fire of his enthusiasm, opened a museum. He also sells very good wine to soothe your throat if dryness is a persistent problem.

The Pileta Caves, just outside Benaojan, were discovered, accidentally by a member of the local Lobato family, who still arrange guided tours around the caves. These have a certain random charm about them but the best time to try is probably between 1000 and 1300 and again after 1600 to 1800. The guide generally likes to take less than 20 people at a time and usually waits until he has sufficient bodies before he starts. Well worth a visit though-particularly for the cave drawings.

The Dolmen de Chopo is a local example of that strange structure, the dolmen, constructed by prehistoric man. Thought to be burial mounds, these structures of stone, which carry echoes of Stonehenge, are usually sited in prominent locations, doubtless where they would have been admired by our ancestors.

Roman Ronda and the Visigoths:
The Romans settled near Ronda at Acinipio, where the remains of the amphitheatre still may be seen in the countryside between Setenil and the A376 connecting Ronda and Algodonales. No mean structure is this. It sat some 2,000 Roman and Hispanic bottoms upon its stone tiered seating and had dressing rooms and other facilities for the luvvies.. Well worth a look.

Roman influence throughout the Iberian Peninsular was profound. From about 200 B.C. for some 600 years, until the Germanic tribes and the Visigoths took over the area as Rome declined, Rome put her stamp upon Spain, producing three Emperors along the way.

As well as the more concrete and obvious legacy left by the Romans of superb roads, fine buildings, baths and remarkably efficient water and sewage systems, the Romans also left the origins of the legal system. They also left a bridge across the Ronda Gorge, which is still used to this day. As Rome declined, both Suevi and Vandals (role models for some of today’s more objectionable football fans) had usurped Roman power. It took the Visigoths to vandalise the Vandals and enjoy the sun and the wine in their place until the Moors came along to kick sand in their faces in turn.

Moorish Ronda:
The Moors swept into Spain from 711 and were not finally excluded from the Peninsular until 1492. They too fell for Ronda and have left their mark here, even in the name of the town. The Moors knew Ronda as Madinat Runda.

The Moorish town of Madinat Runda was, in turn, part of the area of Al-Andalus, which we now know as Andalucia. Al-Andalus in turn was a province of the Caliphate, initially based in Damascus, later in Baghdad. (So let’s hope they don’t decide in Baghdad that they want it back).

Ronda itself was part of the Nasrid Emirate of Granada at a time when the arts and culture flourished in that city. Great building projects from that era can still be admired, such as the Alhambra Palace. Ronda fell to the Catholic Monarchs as part of the reconquest of Spain in 1485, when King Ferdinand of Aragon took the town. In fact, he took back the town on a Whit Sunday. As a religious man, typical of his age, he dedicated a new church to the Holy Ghost. Thus the church of el Espiritu Santu.

Much of the Moors remains in Ronda. La Ciudad (the old town beyond the gorge) is, in effect, the old Moorish town which, although largely rebuilt, still has the character, in places, of an Arab quarter.

Within the old town, the Palacio de Mondragon was originally a Moorish palace. The Moorish Baths are some of the best preserved in Spain and the church of Santa Maria La Mayor is actually built where the principal mosque was once located.

Ronda in the time of The Catholic Monarchs, The Habsburgs and the Bourbons.
After the reconquest, finally completed in 1492 (yes, that’s right-the same date when Mr. C. Columbus sailed the ocean, blue) the Catholic Monarchs took firm measures to unify their lands.

None firmer than the appointment of Torquemada and his merry associates of The Inquisition who gave a whole new meaning to the barbecue with their autos-da-fe. Jews were either forced to convert to Christianity or were expelled and the Muslims were treated in a similar harsh manner. However the Catholic Monarchs undoubtedly achieved much in unifying Spain and making her a great power of her day.

Under the Habsburgs, who followed the Catholic Monarchs, that growth in power was consolidated, not least through the activities of the Conquistadors who carved out great chunks of the Americas for Spain and sent back home considerable wealth in gold, silver and precious stones.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, much of Spain’s wealth was spent on building magnificent churches and palaces, while the arts flourished, producing great artists, and writers. Think Velasquez and Cervantes.

Following the war of the Spanish Succession, the Bourbons came to power during the eighteenth century and it was a Bourbon King on the throne when the Peninsular War started, involving one, The Duke of Wellington, you may recall. That war culminated in the chucking out of the perfidious French who had occupied the country on their way to take Portugal. A bloody war fought across Spain that only ended with the final battle of the campaign at Vittoria in 1813.

Ronda, in 1793, saw the completion of the new bridge, the Puenta Nuevo, across the El Tajo Gorge. Tradition has it that the architect, when examining his handiwork, lost his hat to the breeze, overreached when trying to retrieve it and fell to his death as a result. A sad story but a very beautiful bridge.

Ronda in the 19th century:
A troubled time for all of Spain. Loss of overseas possessions, political unrest, the Carlist Wars and, at the end of the century the Spanish-American war, which saw the loss of the Phillipines along with Cuba and Puerto Rica.

In Ronda, the home of modern bullfighting, Pedro Romero, probably the greatest bullfighter ever, perfected the Ronda School of bullfighting, following the pioneering work of his father and his grandfather who first originated the concept of fighting the bull on foot, rather than on horseback.

Ronda in the 20th century:
Troubles persisted for Spain with unrest, anarchy and the era of Primo de Rivera, an Andalucian born General, who siezed power as a dictator in 1923. However, with the depression that followed the Wall Street Crash he in turn was usurped and the Second Republic arrived. This led in turn to the dreadful excesses of the Civil War.

Ronda in the Spanish Civil War:
A great sorrow for Spain and one in which Ronda was not spared. In 1936, General Franco, by that time based in Spanish Morocco led the Nationalists in an uprising against the Republican government of Spain.

Germany and Italy supported Franco, Russia the Nationalists. The war gave both sets of backers an opportunity to test their weapons and tactics in the most awful of ways. Perhaps the best remembered of all the horrors that occurred was when the Germans bombed Guernica in the Basque country, You may know Picasso’s famous painting of this event.

The war which some estimate cost almost half a million lives, including those who died in prison after the war, ended in victory for the Nationalists in 1939.

You may have read Hemingway’s classic story of the Spanish Civil War: "For Whom The Bell Tolls". In that book, Hemingway describes fascists being thrown from a high bridge over a river. That bridge was in Ronda, or at least the book used a real event in Ronda.

Ronda during the Franco era and up to date:
General Franco maintained a somewhat ambiguous stance during World War 2 and, for this, Spain was punished by restrictions which led to the late 1940s being known as "the hungry years". Ronda suffered like all other parts of Spain at this time.

However the late 1950s saw something of an economic miracle as Spain boomed. In 1975, following the death of Franco, King Juan Carlos took the Spanish throne and has proved a very popular King from that day. The Royal Family are much admired and have been a point of stability for Spain.

Spain, and Ronda within it, is now prosperous, a member of the EU and a democratic country at ease with itself. The Spanish people are confident Europeans and, having put a troubled past behind them, we think, are some of the most amiable people in Europe. Certainly they are in and around Ronda. They are warm, welcoming, humorous and great family people. You will like them.