Ronda

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I had read about the famous Andalucían cities of Cordoba, Granada, Seville and Malaga but when our daughter and son-in-law told us that the next day we will be visiting Ronda, it came as a surprise.

Till that time, I had not even heard the word ‘Ronda’.

It was even more surprise to find that Ronda is such a beautiful town.

Perhaps, I found it so beautiful because of the Spring season. The trees were in full bloom and purple Wisteria blossoms adorned the white walls. Seen from the top, the vales were green and gold below.

Ronda is hardly 100 kms away from the sea-shores of Malaga, where we were staying but it is high up in the hills. The road winds up and up passing the lovely countryside and sometimes the ‘white towns’ perched high up on crags. Their houses are white-washed and they have reddish-brown tiled, slanted roofs. Add to this the many shades of green that comprise the countryside and you get a perfect picture.

When we parked the car and entered the town, I had a sense of ‘Déjà vu’.

Is this Ronda or is this Plovdiv (Bulgaria)?

Both the towns have a broad central avenue which is closed to the traffic, and which is lined with posh, high-end shops, selling everything from flimsy lingerie to thick, brocaded and richly embroidered ‘matador’ types of clothes and other ‘accessories’.

At Plovdiv, the highlight of sightseeing is the ‘Roman Theater’, whereas at Ronda, it is the bridge that is built over the river-gorge and which connects the two halves of the town.

I felt certain that there must be a Roman Theater here too but I could not see any vestige of it anywhere.

“May be the Romans did not find it worthwhile to build a Roman Theater here.” I thought.

Imagine my delight when I read that there IS a Roman Theater about 20 kms from Ronda, which was built for RETIRED soldiers of the Roman legions.

So, Ronda was a Roman ‘Vruddhashram’, (Senior Citizens Community)?

Those enterprising Romans were the first to build the first ‘Roman Bridge’ across the steep canyon (more that 100 meters deep) carved by the Guadalevin river. I do not know whether any vestige of it remains today or whether even its location is known.

There is an ‘Old bridge’ which can be seen in one of the photos taken from the ‘New Bridge’. Even the ‘New Bridge’ was completed as long back as 1793, though it was started in 1751.

The same architect that built New Bridge also built the oldest ‘bullfighting ring’ in Spain.

This might explain why it took so long to build the ‘New Bridge’.

Like our Mumbai builders do, the funds raised for one project were diverted to another project?

We saw the bull-fighting ring only from the outside.

The sheer drop of the canyon, the thin silver stream of the river far below, and the massive bridge over it are sights to cherish in the memory.

My memory also retains the toll taken on my knees by ‘up-and-down’ nature of its roads.

The cliffs of the canyon and the New Bridge are beautiful but there is dark history about it. In the Spanish Civil War, prisoners were thrown from the cliffs onto the rocks below.

Ernest Hemingway made use of this episode in his novel ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’.

I would have vociferously condemned this brutal practice but I remembered that our own history is replete with examples of ‘Kadelot’ (throwing from the cliff) as a punishment.

So, basically, all men are barbarians under the skin irrespective of the color of the skin.

Like the rest of Spain, Ronda too was ruled by Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Christens. However the Moorish imprint on the city has become rather obscure here, while it is quite strong elsewhere in Andalucia. It is not easy to spot the Moorish underpinnings of many structures, because many former mosques have been converted into Christen churches.

The Moorish Baths and some grand Moorish houses bear a silent testimony to their former glory.

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