{"id":222,"date":"2016-10-26T20:53:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T18:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/?p=222"},"modified":"2016-10-26T20:53:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T18:53:16","slug":"help-me-ronda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/ronda\/help-me-ronda\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Me Ronda"},"content":{"rendered":"

The attraction of Ronda is…Ronda. Situated in the hills\/mountains north of Malaga and partway between Seville and Granada, it’s one of the oldest towns in all of Spain and considered the prettiest of the pueblos blancos, towns built into the sides of hills and painted predominantly white. Ronda has been a Celtic town (that was a surprise to me), a Roman stronghold, a Byzantine Greek settlement, and a Moorish town until it fell to the Christians during the Reconquering in the 1200s. Oh–somewhere along the line it was also pillaged by the Visigoths.<\/p>\n

Ronda has been coveted as a town site from the earliest times because it is situated atop a hill with 300 foot vertical walls and therefore easily defensible. (That is called into question considering the number of times it has changed hands.) That’s the old town. Ronda expanded across the gorge and now has three bridges built at various times in its history. The largest and most heavily used is the Puente Nueve, because anything built around here in the 1700s is considered new. Elements of earlier walls and fortifications are evident and accessible in many places around the town–in many cases, incorporated into newer structures. (How cool would it be to have a Roman wall in your living room?) The Moors, feeling that anyone entering the town needed to purify themselves first, built an extensive bath system at the main entrance to the town, complete with heated water delivered via aqueduct to the complex by a horse powered water wheel and heated with a wood fire. The remains, below, are fascinating.<\/p>\n

Ronda is now heavily invested in tourism. It claims to be the most visited town in Spain. The architecture and history are fascinating, and I’d recommend a visit for those reasons. But maybe not a long one, unless you like crowds. Fortunately, the Ba\u00f1os Arabes are down a pretty steep hill, so crowds thin out pretty quickly, and nights seem to be less crowded.<\/p>\n

\"El<\/a>
El Puente Nueve<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Part<\/a>
Part of the new town above the gorge separating old and new<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Moorish<\/a>
Moorish fortifications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Walking<\/a>
Walking across the Roman bridge toward the old main gate to the city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Old<\/a>
Old Roman bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Receiving<\/a>
Receiving room, Arab Baths<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The beautiful symmetry of Moorish architecture. The skylights are in the shapes of stars.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Arab<\/a>
Arab Baths. The skylights are patterned after stars.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A section of the tile-lined aqueduct that carried water to the Arab Baths.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Best<\/a>
Best section of the old Moorish defensive wall. Santo Espiritu church behind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Section<\/a>
Section of the Moorish wall, now part of a private home and providing a backdrop for a caf\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Puente<\/a>
Puente Nueve at night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The attraction of Ronda is…Ronda. Situated in the hills\/mountains north of Malaga and partway between Seville and Granada, it’s one of the oldest towns in all of Spain and considered the prettiest of the pueblos blancos, towns built into the sides of hills and painted predominantly white. Ronda has been a Celtic town (that was a surprise to me), a Roman stronghold, a Byzantine Greek settlement, and a Moorish town until it fell to the Christians during the Reconquering in…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ronda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/andalog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}