Before heading down the winding lane at the junction of the Gaucin road, take a look at the hill that the road curves around, which the locals call Monte Poron. This is meant to be the site of the local seat of power, whose castle dominated the area.
Inaugurated in 1785, Ronda's Plaza de Toros is one of the oldest in Spain, younger and smaller than that at Sevilla, but home to one of Spain's most famous 'schools' of bullfighting, on foot rather than on horseback as at Jerez and Sevilla.
Towering above the Almocábar gate, the monolithic church of the Holy Spirit is the Ciudad's unofficial cathedral, and certainly the place where the señoritos and their ladies from Ronda's old families can be seen at Sunday mass.
Built on Arabic foundations at the instigation of the Reyes Catolicos after the fall of Ronda in 1485, this imposing structure on the far side of the Puente Nuevo has been rebuilt over the centuries in Mudejar (post-Reconquest Arabic), gothic and Renaissance styles. It has been, variously, a Dominican convent, a private mausoleum for the Moctezuma y Rojas family and, sporadically, a tribunal for the Inquisition.
With views overlooking al Tajo and surrounded by nature, Hotel Catalonia Reina Victoria offers all the comfort and modern amenities of a 4 star hotel. A little to the south of the Alameda, and connected to it by the cliff top Paseo de los Ingleses is a garden, in the centre of which stands the Hotel Reina Victoria.
With views overlooking al Tajo and surrounded by nature, Hotel Catalonia Reina Victoria offers all the comfort and modern amenities of a 4 star hotel. A little to the south of the Alameda, and connected to it by the cliff top Paseo de los Ingleses is a garden, in the centre of which stands the Hotel Reina Victoria.
The Casa del Rey Moro is to some extent a fraud, since the house was never the home of the Moorish King. It was built in the 18th Century, when Moorish Spain was already a distant memory. Its apparently Moorish gardens are even more recent, having been designed by the French landscape gardener, Jean Claude Forestier, in 1912.
Built in the 16th century, possibly on remnants of an earlier bridge, this was the one navigable link between Mercadillo and La Ciudad until the completion of the Puente Nuevo centuries later. Cars still need good gears and drivers with steely nerves to take the steep hairpin bend on the way up to the cuesta de Santo Domingo.
Across the cuesta from the Casa del Rey Moro, the Palacio of the Marqués de Salvatierra family opens irregularly as a small museum of Renaissance art and artefacts. The Palacio is an 18th century renovation of an earlier 16th century building gifted to the family of Don Vasco Martín de Salvatierra by the Reyes Catolicos when they redistributed the spoils of the Reconquest.
Sometimes called the Roman bridge, as it was thought to have been built on the foundations of an earlier Roman bridge, this was promptly abandoned when the 16th century expansion of the Mercadillo district required a better link with the Ciudad. Then, the Guadelevín was a much deeper river.
Explore the Arab Baths of Ronda, Málaga, one of Andalucía’s best-preserved Islamic hammams. Discover centuries-old architecture, star-shaped skylights, and underground chambers that once hosted the city’s main Moorish baths..
The Paseo Hemingway leads on to Ronda's great green lung, the 19th century Alameda del Tajo. Originally named the Alameda de San Carlos, this is the front garden for a town where nobody has a front garden. At weekends, particularly in summer, whole families descend here, and much daytime life is lived in its shade.
Walk up the hill from the bullring, and you will soon find yourself at the foot of a wide flight of stone steps leading to the imposing wooden doors of the Merced Carmelite Convent. The first Carmelites were male hermits, former pilgrims and crusaders who gathered together in 1155 AD at Mount Carmel in Palestine, close by the fountain of Elijah, and dedicated themselves to a life of austerity, poverty and prayer.
Ronda's extensive walls, murallas, were begun by its Moorish rulers in the 13th century, renovated in the 16th by the Christians the earlier walls were built to keep out, and parts are still being rebuilt in the 21st century. Originally, this feat of medieval engineering wrapped the entire city, and must have made it one of the most securely defended settlements of its time.
By far the loveliest public space in Ronda, this leafy square boasts an embarrassment of monuments. Its star is the Iglesia de Santa Maria del Mayor, whose exquisite belltower suggests Renaissance twinned with Toytown. This is another church commissioned by the Reyes Catolicos, sited with some purpose on the ruins of a mosque, believed to have been the centre of prayer in the Arabic Medina.
Behind the Plaza de Toros are Ronda's spectacular walkways celebrating two famous visitors, the Paseos de Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles, both great aficionados of the corrida and just two of the stellar international figures who became associated with Ronda over the years.
Ronda's loveliest enclosed space is the Mondragón palace, the heavily renovated and part-modernised remnants of what once was the palace of the Moorish ruler Abbel Mallek, or Abomelic, son of the king of Morocco. The palace is tiny, but much detail remains, in the Mudejar ceilings, some original tiling, and the balconied inner courtyards.
Ronda is divided into three parts, and the old Moorish citadel, La Ciudad, should be explored first. If, like most visitors, you drive up from the coast, the first part of town you will encounter is the Barrio de San Francisco. Park here, and enter the fortifications on foot through the Moorish gate, the Puerta de Almocábar, with its characteristic horseshoe arch.
The building known as the Casino and Circulo de Artistas (Artists Society) is located on the north side of Ronda's Plaza del Socorro. This is a charming corner of the town where tourists enjoy their lunch, unaware that they are in the company of one of Andalucia's most famous historical venues.
Puente Nuevo, Ronda's 'new bridge' was completed in 1793, after 40 years in construction and after the loss of the lives of 50 builders constructing the span bridging the 98m Tajo gorge. The bridge bisects Ronda into new town (mercadillo, 'little market') and old (La Ciudad). The project was first proposed by King Felipe V in 1735.
Las Cuevas de Nerja (the Caves of Nerja) are a series of naturally formed caves and caverns in the hills of Maro, 4km North-East of Nerja, some of which have taken up to two million years to form. The caves contain the widest naturally-formed column in the world, at 32m high and 13x7m at its base. Formed by the merging of a stalagmite and stalactite, it has held the Guinness World Record since 1989. The caves also famously host the annual Nerja International Festival of Music and Dance.
