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For the municipality in the Philippines, see Ronda, Cebu, and the former settlement in California, United States, see Ronda, California.

Ronda

View in Ronda looking toward the Church of Santa Maria la Mayor

Ronda is a city in the Spanish province of Malaga. It is located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the city of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is 35,512.

[edit] History

Ronda was first settled by the early Celts, but its subsequent Roman and then Moorish rulers are reflected most prominently in its architecture. The forces of Catholic Spain took control of the town in 1485, during the Reconquista. Acinipo is known locally as Ronda la Vieja, Arunda or Old Ronda. But Acinipo and Arunda (Ronda) are really separate towns of Roman origin ^[1]

[edit] Geography

Ronda is situated in a very mountainous area about 750 metres (2,500 ft) above mean sea level. The Guadalevín River runs through the city, dividing it in two and carving out the steep, 100 plus meters deep El Tajo canyon upon which the city perches. The Spanish Fir (Abies pinsapo) is endemic to the mountains surrounding Ronda.

[edit] Bridges

Three bridges, Puente Romano ("Roman Bridge", also known as the Puente San Miguel), Puente Viejo ("Old Bridge", also known as the Puente Arabe or "Arab Bridge") and Puente Nuevo ("New Bridge"), span the canyon. The term "nuevo" is a bit of a misnomer, as the building of this bridge commenced in 1751 and took until 1793 to complete. The Puente Nuevo is the tallest of the bridges, towering 120 metres (390 ft) above the canyon floor, and all three serve as some of the city's most impressive features.

[edit] Historic sites

Another important site in Ronda is the Plaza de toros de Ronda, the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain that is still used, albeit infrequently. It was built in 1784 in the Neoclassical style by the architect José Martin de Aldehuela, who also designed the Puente Nuevo.

The partially intact baños árabes ("Arab baths") are found below the city and date back to the 13th and 14th centuries. Both the Sufi scholar Salih ben Sharif al-Rundi (1204-1285) and the poet Ibn Abbad al-Rundi (1333-1390) were born in Ronda.

The former town hall, which sits next to the Puente Nuevo, is the site of a parador, and has an impressive view of the Tajo.

[edit] Cultural influence

Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles spent many summers in Ronda as part-time residents of Ronda's old town quarter called La Ciudad. Both wrote about Ronda's beauty and famous bull-fighting traditions. Their collective accounts have contributed to Ronda's popularity over time.

Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls describes the murder of Nationalist sympathizers early in the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans murder the Nationalists by throwing them from cliffs in an Andalusian village, and Hemingway allegedly based the account on killings that took place in Ronda at the cliffs of El Tajo.

Orson Welles said he was inspired by his frequent trips to Spain and Ronda (e.g. Wells unfinished film about Don Quixote). After Wells died in 1985, his ashes were scattered in a Ronda bull-ring. About Ronda, Welles once said, "A man is not from where he is born, but where he chooses to die."

The fictional hero of novelist George Eliot's book was Daniel Deronda, the story of Spanish Jew brought up as an Englishman in the book of the same name. Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann (Marian) Evans. There is some 'fun' speculation that Evans' ancestors may have lived in Ronda prior to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

[edit] Transportation

Ronda is accessible via highways and by rail from Algeciras and from Córdoba.

[edit] Sister cities

Chefchaouen, Morocco ^[2]

[edit] Gallery

The Puente Nuevo	The Puente Nuevo	The Plaza de Toros	The museum also found in The Plaza de Toros
Bull Statue outside Bullring	The Chasm which Divides Ronda	The Plaza de Toros again	Looking from Ronda to the plain below
View of the Moorish bridge as seen from the "Old Bridge" on the south side of town	Tiles on a wall in Ronda, Spain	Viewing platform (top right)