Beauty of Spains Ronda Will Rock You

By David Ellis

TO ask if the Andalusian small-town of Ronda in the south of Spain is amazing is somewhat similar to asking whether Julia Roberts is a "pretty woman".
           
Well-known poet from the 20th century, Rainer Maria Rilke who hails from Austria summed up the town in his writings, “I have sought everywhere the city of my dreams, and I have finally found it in Ronda. There is nothing that is more startling than this wild and mountainous city.”
 
Railke wasn’t the only person to praise the town. Hollywood legend Orson Welles and  writer/ Novel Prize winner, Ernest Hemmingway also heaped praise on Ronda. Both mentioned they loved the uniqueness of the town – and its tradition of bullfighting, Spain’s oldest and one of the most famous bullrings resides there. Welles, a skilled painter, captured the beauty in his work and was so taken aback that he requested to be laid to rest on the outskirts of Ronda, Hemmingway wrote about his love of the town.

Ronda: Aerial View

The city perches atop a 120-metre deep, 68-metre wide canyon. Below flows the Rio Guadalevín which tourists marvel at. And Ronda, by name alone, translates to rocky.
 
The city comes with a violent history: Carthage’s Hannibal and the Romans clashed here. Later followers of Islam fought ferociously against the Catholics. In the 16th century, this was one of the most awful conflicts when catastrophic number of Spanish civilians were murdered, and then as payback, many more Muslims. During this wave of killings, those Muslims who were not destroyed in battle were sold as slaves.          
           
For Whom the Bell Tolls, a classic by Hemingway features a scene based on an extremely gory event of the Spanish Civil War. 500 Fascist sympathisers were killed – they were simply tossed to their deaths from the cliffs of Ronda into the 120m deep gorge.

The Puente Nuevo

Interestingly, around 70 per cent of photos taken in the town of Ronda are of Puente Nuevo (New Bridge). The bridge spans the canyon and despite its name is far from "New" having been completed in 1793 following 40-odd years of hard labour.

Somewhat strangely the bridge contains numerous rooms nestled inside its centre that were previously used for periods of time as both a torture chamber and prison – and later a bar owner provided more humane purposes. Nowadays a museum resides there.

While the bridge was under construction, the second architect working on the it after the initial architect pulled the pin after a troublesome 26 years was José Martin de Aldehuela. He concentrated his skills on the Plaza de Toros bullring which was to be completed in 1784. This becoming the towns next "most-photographed" building.

Half a Fiat 600

‘Corrida Goyesca’ is an annual bullfight that draws bullfight-addicts from throughout Spain. Famed bullfighter Cayetano Rivera Ordonez has recently been donned with the colourfully designed costumes of Giorgio Armani for the famed bullfight. Satin jackets, cloaks and trousers are designed in a shade of Armani Greige (a trademark mixture of beige and grey).

The town of Ronda also houses the EnfrenteArte Hotel (translation: In Front of Art), a  wonderful and weird place that’s an attraction for tourists wanting to not only lodge in one of the strangest hotels worldwide, but to take nearly as many photos as the city's bridge.
           
The Guest Book of the EnfrenteArte is abound with descriptions of the hotel: Fascinating, Bohemian, Bizarre and Funky to name a few. It's no surprise that ratings agencies place the hotel near the top of the Weird or Wonderful charts: Walking off the oldest paved-street in town, visitors walks into Reception and are immediately confronted by a car coming through one of the walls. In fact it is the front half of a yellow Fiat 600. (Where the back half is situated is another tale for another time.)

Bum Sculpting Seat

The entire hotel is flooded with such historical and original "artworks." A surfboard serves for dining, tyres have been turned into "occasional" tables and surrounding the swimming pool there are ridiculously sculptured chairs shaped for ones behind.
 
And the strange lighting, such as lights glowing from artificial bird’s nests in used basketballs, glitters over wall murals unending the likes of Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson.

For details go to www.enfrentearte.com.

Plaza de Toros