Ronda · ES
Ronda: Clifftop & Gorge Highlights
Across the vertiginous Puente Nuevo spanning the El Tajo gorge, from Spain's oldest bullring to the Moorish old town and its Arab baths.
What's the walk about?
Welcome to Ronda, one of the most spectacularly situated towns in all of Spain, perched high on a plateau in the mountains of Andalusia and split dramatically in two by a vast, sheer-sided gorge called El Tajo. Spanning that terrifying chasm is the Puente Nuevo, the great bridge that is the symbol of the town. A former Moorish stronghold, a cradle of modern bullfighting, and a magnet for romantic travellers, writers and artists from Hemingway to Orson Welles, Ronda is pure drama. On this gentle walk we take in the historic bullring and a cliff-edge park, cross the breathtaking bridge, and explore the Moorish old town with its church, palaces, Arab baths and the astonishing secret stairway cut down to the river. Mind the drops, and prepare to be amazed.
What you'll see
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1
Plaza de Toros
Bullring
One of the oldest and most revered bullrings in Spain, an elegant arcaded ring of golden stone from 1785, considered a cradle of modern bullfighting on foot.
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2
Alameda del Tajo
Park
An elegant nineteenth-century park promenade perched on the very edge of the cliff, with balconies projecting out over a sheer drop and sweeping views across the Serranía mountains.
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3
Plaza de España
Square
The handsome square at the northern head of the great bridge, overlooked by the Parador hotel in the former town hall, and linked to a famous scene in a Hemingway novel.
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4
Puente Nuevo
Bridge
The breathtaking New Bridge, the symbol of Ronda, flung across the sheer El Tajo gorge nearly a hundred metres above the river, linking the old and new halves of the town.
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5
Mirador de Aldehuela
Viewpoint
The classic viewpoint beside the great bridge, named after its architect, offering the definitive postcard view of the Puente Nuevo soaring across the gorge.
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6
Iglesia de Santa María la Mayor
Church
The main church of the old town, built over the former great mosque of Moorish Ronda, blending Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, and still preserving a fragment of the mosque's prayer niche.
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7
Palacio de Mondragón
Palace
An elegant palace blending Moorish and Renaissance styles, said to have been a residence of the Moorish rulers of Ronda, with beautiful tiled courtyards and a terrace over the valley, now the city museum.
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8
Casa del Rey Moro
Historic House
A house famous not for its rooms but for its garden and its astonishing Water Mine: a secret stairway of some two hundred steps cut down through the rock to the river at the bottom of the gorge.
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9
Baños Árabes
Historic Baths
The best-preserved Arab baths in Spain, a beautifully intact medieval hammam of horseshoe arches and star-shaped skylights, set beside a stream in the old tanners' quarter below the town.
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10
Puente Viejo
Bridge
The Old Bridge, a graceful single-arched stone bridge crossing the gorge at a lower, gentler point, offering beautiful views up the chasm toward the great Puente Nuevo.
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