Spain: Orson Welles and Hemingway in Ronda

There were no bullfights during our time in Ronda. The Plaza de Toros, as bullrings
are called in Spain, dates to 1785, though bullfighting started in Ronda much
earlier. Attached to the building are facilities used by Ronda's equestrian school,
which dates to the 1500s. Bulls were used to help train horses and riders for combat. 
This is the largest bullring in Spain in terms of the size of the ring itself,
but not in the number of spectators that can be accommodated. 

 It was a description of Ronda's striking geography that put it on our itinerary during our six-week trip to Spain in spring 2024. The town of about 35,000 people straddles a nearly 400-foot-deep (120 meters) gorge. It seems to sit on something of a mesa at an elevation of 2,425 feet (729 meters), overlooking agricultural lands hundreds of feet below. 

We're not the only American visitors taken with this town. In "Death in the Afternoon" (1923), Ernest Hemingway wrote that Ronda "is where you should go if you ever go to Spain on honeymoon or if you ever bolt with anyone."  He and the movie director Orson Welles were both taken by the town's bullfighting culture. It was here that bullfighting evolved into Spain's most iconic sport. Welles died  in 1985. In 1987, his ashes were interred in a dry well on the nearby estate of his friend the matador Antonio Ordonez. After Ordonez's death in 1998, some of his ashes were interred in the same well. There are streets named for both Welles and Hemingway.

We stayed two nights here just across Calle Virgen de la Paz from the bullring at the Catalonia Ronda. A parador close by has perhaps a better view of the gorge and the lands below the mesa, but I thought our bullring view was pretty cool. The views from the hotel's restaurant and rooftop are even better.

As elsewhere in Spain, there were tapas. At Bar Vi-da, a tiny place on Calle Virgen de los Remedios, we had sardines and pureed tomato on toast, an oxtail mini sandwich, iberico ham and cheese mini sandwich and a chicken salad with yogurt dressing. At Entrevinos, we had a venison skewer, a duck breast skewer, fois gras on a matza-like cracker, and a board of Spanish cheeses.  I'm not sure what grapes are involved, but I was ordering vino tinto de Ronda (local red wine) and every glass was very good and very inexpensive. Maybe this was part of the appeal for Welles (a wine company pitchman in his declining years) and Hemingway, who was known for being thrifty during his early years in Europe. 

Here are some photos:

Agricultural lands spread out below
Ronda, as seen though part of the
town's famous El Tajo gorge.

Buildings have sat at the edge of the gorge for centuries.

A view of the Puente Nuevo, the new bridge,
which was completed in 1793.

For a small fee, visitors can go inside the bridge.

The window above the main arch is where a small museum 
about the bridge is located. 

One more view of the Puente Nuevo.

This is the Puento Viejo, or old bridge, which
also spans the Guadalevin River.

On a walk around the outside of the city's old quarter, we
could see both the medieval walls and the modern area. 

The Arco de Felipe V, or Philip V Arch,
is just outside the city wall. 

A building in the old quarter.

Restaurants cascade down the cliff just north
of the Puenta Neuvo.

Carrera Espinel is Ronda's main shopping street
for both locals and tourists.

Plaza del Socorro is lined with restaurants and tapas bars.

The entrance into the bullring.

Museum exhibits at the bullring explain the history and pageantry of bullfighting.
One section explains how the sport has always been controversial, with three main
complaints against it: it is immoral for a person to needlessly risk death (a bullfighter's
death was considered suicide), it is economically wrong to kill a valuable animal
for sport, and, especially in modern time, it is cruel to the animal. At times in
Spanish history, bullfighting has been banned and priests who attended fights
were excommunicated.

The view from the terrace of the 
Hotel Catalonia Ronda.