Ronda

Around the city are remains of prehistoric settlements dating to the Neolithic, including the rock art of Cueva de la Pileta. The places of Arunda and Acinipo mentioned by Pliny have been traditionally identified with current Ronda. In the fifth century AD, Ronda was conquered by the Suebi, led by Rechila, being reconquered in the following century by the Eastern Roman Empire, under whose rule Acinipo was abandoned. Later, the Visigothic king Liuvigild captured the city. Ronda was part of the Visigoth realm until 713, when it fell to the Umayyad troops, who named it Hisn al-Rundah ("Castle of Rundah") and made it the capital of the Takurunna province. It was the hometown of the polymath Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887), an inventor, engineer, alleged aviator, chemist, physician, Muslim poet, and Andalusian musician. …

Ronda lies in a mountainous area about 750 m (2,460 ft) above mean sea level. The inner relief is gentle and includes areas of pastureland and vegetable and cereal growing areas. The Guadalevín River runs through the city, dividing it in two and carving out the steep, 100-plus-meter-deep El Tajo canyon above which the city perches. The Spanish fir is endemic to the mountains surrounding Ronda.

American artists Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles spent many summers in Ronda as part-time residents of Ronda's old-town quarter called La Ciudad. Both wrote about Ronda's beauty and famous bullfighting traditions. Their collective accounts have contributed to Ronda's popularity over time. In the first decades of the 20th century, the famous German poet Rainer Maria Rilke spent extended periods in Ronda, including three months at the Hotel Reina Victoria (built in 1906) between December 1912 and February 1913; his room remains to this day as he left it, a minimuseum of Rilkeana. …

Three bridges span the Tajo canyon: Puente Romano "Roman Bridge" (also known as the Puente Arabe "Arabic Bridge", as the foundation is Roman and it was rebuilt above in the Arabic Period); Puente Viejo "Old Bridge" (also known as the Puente San Miguel "St. Michael's Bridge"); and Puente Nuevo "New Bridge". The term nuevo is something of a misnomer, as the building of this bridge commenced in 1751 and took until 1793 to complete. The Puente Nuevo is the tallest of the bridges, towering 120 m (390 ft) above the canyon floor. The former town hall, which stands next to the Puente Nuevo, is the site of a Parador and has a view of the Tajo canyon. The Corrida Goyesca is a bullfight that takes place once a year in Ronda in the Plaza de Toros de Ronda, one of the oldest and the best-preserved bullring in Spain. …

Ronda is accessible via highways (Autovía A-374) and by rail from Algeciras and from Córdoba. A direct train from Madrid to Ronda operates twice daily. The single-track railway between Ronda and Algeciras was built between 1890 and 1892 by the Algeciras Gibraltar Railway Company. It enabled the British military officers to escape the summer heat of Gibraltar. The railway was built by James Morrison, an engineer, in partnership with Alexander Henderson, 1st Baron Faringdon, a financier. The station at Ronda was opened in 1892.

Candela Sierra (born 1990), filmmaker, and comic book writer and artist