Ronda and its mountains

Who can stand over the chasm on Ronda’s Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) and not feel the headiness of its past – or is it that 100 metre drop?

Here is an aristocratic town so attractive and replete with history that it has overtaken Cordoba in the number of visitors.

Meanwhile, in the nearby mountains and National Parks, the famed pueblos blancos (white villages) offer a perfect retreat to holidaymakers looking for a tranquil home in natural surroundings.

Celts were the first to settle mountainous Ronda and both Phoenicians and Romans left their mark, but it was the Moors who would make use of its deep Tagus Gorge to establish a stronghold that endured from 713 AD until 1485, when the conquering Catholic Monarchs rode in as part of a military sweep through Andalucia culminating in the taking of Granada in 1492.

Who can stand over the chasm on Ronda’s Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) and not feel the headiness of its past – or is it that 100-metre drop?

The most interesting buildings in the city span the centuries, epitomized by the “new” bridge that joins La Ciudad, the old town, with the newer El Mercadillo neighbourhoods of Ronda, and which was completed in 1793. There are two other bridges but this is the most dramatic. The gorge is believed to be the setting in Hemingway’s For whom the bell tolls for a scene during the Civil War in which Nationalist supports are flung to their death by Republicans (a cruelty that would later be revisited upon Republicans by Franco’s victorious army).

In La Ciudad a 16th Century convent has been made into an art museum and cobbled streets run between mansions that are home still to some of Ronda’s oligarchy. Visit Palacio Mondragón and wander down the alley to Plaza Duquesa de Parcent, the most appealing and interesting of Ronda’s squares. From here, Armiñan street takes you to the San Francisco district, where bars and restaurants abound.

La Casa del Rey Moro (House of the Moorish King), is in fact nothing of the kind, having been built in the 18th century and inexplicably remodelled in the worst 1960s style much later. But the Moors did cut the steps down from the house’s gardens to the curious Water Mine. Descend through time down the 300 steps and then imagine carrying a filled water skein back up… Also down below the city are restored Arabic baths, well worth a visit.

The famous bridge’s architect also built the neo-Classical bullring, the oldest still in use in Spain. Modern bullfighting was born in Ronda when Pedro Romero styled a new school of taking on bulls by getting off his horse and fighting them face to face. Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles (whose ashes were scattered here) were fervent aficionados of Ronda bullfighting.

Another tradition the local citizens are proud of is their annual romería, a fêted pilgrimage centred around the statue of the Virgin of the Head (sic), which is held aloft and across the Puente Nuevo to the sound of singing, drums and other musical instruments.

Wine lovers may wish to test the delicacy of their palates at Ronda’s wine museum (Museo del Vino), which you will find in the Nasrid palace’s Casa del Gigante. The wine tasting school here claims it can teach you to distinguish 56 aromas in a single glass. You may decide that you need to make several attempts before you are satisfied.

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, bandits were a constant scourge in the foothills around Ronda—the city’s unique museum of banditry (Museo del Bandolero) attests to that history—forcing those living on the fertile plains to take refuge in settlements on hilltop locations. These would grow to become the famed pueblos blancos, or white villages.

The strategic placement of these twenty or more strongholds is responsible today for the seclusion and fantastic views they offer holidaymakers, many of whom are careful to choose amongst them the most welcoming, attractive and best provided for in terms of facilities.

Gaucin in the Ronda Mountains

Gaucin is undoubtedly the most popular of all the villages in the Ronda Mountains. Topped by Eagle Castle on its high cliff and looking down to the Mediterranean Sea—Gibraltar to the east and Morocco in the far distance—it has a history going back to Roman times and enticingly twisting streets where you will find holiday homes in local whitewashed style and plenty of options for eating out.

Among its celebratory traditions are Carnival, Holy Week processions, climaxing in the running of a bull on a long rope through the streets on Easter Sunday, and an annual August fair. Both the village and its hillsides, rich in wild flowers, almond trees and olive, are a joy to walk and take in. Gaucín may make you want to stay: certainly a small community of European artists has grown up here over the years.

The location is a decided draw. The nearby Alcornocales National Park offers twenty signposted walks, many of them easy and circular, through its vast cork oak forests. They are the largest in Spain, producing 26,000 tonnes of raw cork every year. As you ramble, you will come across a type of river-bank woodland unique in Europe and may spot deer, otter and wild boar, booted eagles, griffon vultures and kestrels.

Also, just half an hour away from Gaucin, are the beaches of the Costa del Sol, where swims, sunbathing, barbecued fish, ice creams and a cold beer all go down extremely well. Gaucin also has one of the region’s best municipal swimming pools if you don’t fancy going as far as the sea. Historic Ronda is 36 km away and Málaga 126 km.

Find out more in our in-depth Gaucin holiday guide

See: Villas and village houses in Gaucin

See all:  Villas in Ronda Mountains & Grazalema

DETAILED MAP OF RONDA MOUNTAINS & GRAZALEMA, ANDALUCÍA, SPAIN 

Grazalema and its Natural Park

Grazalema, (population 2,250) is similar in size to Gaucin, but closer to Ronda.

The village's special location in the middle of its own protected Natural Park Grazalema village makes it the focal point for leisurely rambles through a beautiful limestone terrain.

Hillwalkers adore this gorgeously green corner of Andalusia.

Grazalema village

Grazalema is a lovely old village of steep, whitewashed streets, immaculately kept and decked out with geraniums and other colourful plants behind the wrought iron bars of the windows. Restauranteurs and bar owners set out tables and chairs on the appealing main square, where you will find a tourist office, the village hall and the 18th century church of La Aurora.

Apart from providing information on walks (and permits for them if they take you into protected areas of the Natural Park), the oficina de turismo also sells local produce including the famous Grazalema blankets and ponchos, sought-out items among horsepeople throughout Andalucia.

Watch this short Grazalema video  to see the village
in its natural surroundings

This village likes its fiestas. A mini-pilgrimage, the Romería of San Isidro Labrador, is made on the last Sunday in May and shortly afterwards, on June 13th, the village fêtes Saint Antony. Come July, and it’s time for the Fiestas de la Carmen, which take place in the third week of the month and culminate on a Monday with a running of bulls through the streets.

A couple of weeks later, on the first Sunday in August, nearby Benamahoma celebrates the festival of Moors and Christians with a mock battle.

Grazalema then gears up again for its major agricultural festival in the third week in August. A modest respite is granted before the day of the Virgen de los Angeles, its patron saint, is celebrated on September 8th.
Naturally, these are supplementary to Spain’s national fiestas which decree even more days off through the calendar.

Typical local dishes include lamb, trout, bean soups, a unique asparagus gazpacho, wild mushrooms, dairy sponge and almond cake.

View holiday homes in Ronda Mountains & Grazalema

The Sierra de Grazalema Natural Reserve

UNESCO designated the vast natural park of Grazalema — all 51,695 hectares of it — a Biosphere Reserve in 1977. This extraordinary karstic region, with tremendous forests of the rare Spanish fir offering endless green vistas, is a walker’s delight. The rugged limestone terrain has been rounded and moulded by rains to form caves, grottos, canyons, and cliffs. There are peaks 1,500m high, river banks populated by holm oak and carob, and soft, green valleys.

On the towering rock face of the Garganta Verde (Green Throat Gorge), dropping vertically a dizzying 400 metres, nest griffon vultures.

As if that wasn’t enough, an astonishing cave systems lie hidden beneath the living landscape. The Cueva del Gato (Cat Cave), which extends 4 km, should be explored only with a guide, but you can enter the cave mouth safely and swim in the natural pool beneath the waterfall cascading from the cavern’s opening.

La Cueva de la Pileta is more extraordinary still, daubed with prehistoric paintings of human and animal figures in red, black and yellow, indicating human settlement over 25,000 years ago. Take a torch!

Some of the Park’s more delicate areas are off-limits to hikers especially during summer months when fire risk is high, but rest assured that just about any walk here will provide a hugely satisfactory experience of one of Spain’s most unspoiled natural locations.

Grazalema has the same hours of rain as other green areas of Spain, but the rainfall is more profuse when it comes. After giving the ground a good soak, the weather tends to change and the sun breaks through again.