The rift in Ronda
Trip Start
Dec 15, 2003
1
7
9
Trip End
Dec 30, 2003
Ronda, Spain
Friday, December 26, 2003
I think the city was originally on one side and eventually grew to the other side, but I'm not sure. Now, the old city (mostly Muslims) are on one side and the new city contains a more Catholic population, as it evolved through time. The Muslims were in Spain starting in 711 AD and were ultimately, almost completely abolished in 1492, by the Catholics. So, as the Catholics moved into Ronda, they set up shop across the gorge.
The first place on my route was the "House of the Moorish King" which was a house that rose from the bottom of the gorge to the top of it. Their claim to fame was their mines inside the house. In reality, they were basic rooms carved right out of the stone walls of the gorge. One of the rooms was used to store armaments for the soldiers of the king. They also claimed these rooms that led to the bottom of the gorge were also an escape route when they were being invaded. The house itself was not on display, but its gardens were. They were beautiful, with water flowing everywhere, along sidewalks, out of walls, etc, and included a beautiful view of the countryside upstream of the gorge/river.
I also visited the Arab baths, examples of which appear in almost every town I've visited so far. The Arabs put great value on cleanliness of body as well as spirit. They would achieve this in the bath houses, working their way from cold water to hot water baths, and including massages. These bath houses in Ronda, however, claimed to be the most complete and the best preserved. From what I've seen (government-owned, not privately-owned), this was true. They also had a nice video that included a computer-generated reproduction of what the baths actually looked like with people using them, naked men included. The presentation was nice, even if the script was word-for-word what was written in the pamphlets given out.
After the baths, I walked along the old city wall and ate lunch while watching the horses being worked and the sheep and goats being grazed on the hillside across the river. I visited the Lara Museum, which was basically this rich person's personal collection of stuff, from microscopes to pipes and guns to fans and bullfighting memorabilia. The archeological artifacts were what caught my eye and pulled me in.
I now understand the reason for visiting a good museum - they include interpretation of the artifacts as well as what goes on/went on during a given time period. This was blatantly absent from this exhibit/collection.
Ronda is also known as the home of bullfighting because the person who made it into an "artform" lived here and perfected it, as did his progeny for 3 generations. I, however, read this somewhere and did not visit the ring/museum.
After 5 beautiful hours spent in Ronda, I caught the bus for Malaga.
