Saturday June 3rd 2023.
Ronda – Day 1 of 2
Rising bright and early, we were on a whirlwind tour to see all of Ronda in a day, which according to a travel blog, was possible. We began with a visit to the Bullfight Ring that was the original birthplace of bull fighting in Spain. It’s no longer used for this purpose and is now a rider training facility and museum. Madonna filmed one of her music videos in it back in the 90’s and it’s had other uses along the way.
Buen Dias El Toro. Can you come out and play?
The entrance of the bullring arena housed the horses and riding arena where the Matadors would perfect their riding skills. The arena is still used today and is a highly sought after facility for upcoming horsemen/horsewomen to train at.
The sand in this area is extremely fine and has a rich orange tint to it which feels to have more clay than sand in its composition. There’s a drag in the ring itself that’s used after each bullfight event or training session to smooth out the surface.
This is the holding area for the bulls before they get sorted from out from one of the eight pens, awaiting their demise.
Each mature bull must be four or more years of age to be fought by the veteran Matador. Younger hills are reserved for the less experienced Matadors.
The marks along side the doors and concrete walls definitely tell the story of how this staging area has been used in the past.
Just behind the bull area is another paddock for the horses used in the ring. The horses, matador’s and bull all enter through this same area, but not all together however.
The curved door is where both the matador and bull would enter the arena.
This arena could accommodate nearly 4000 spectators.
One of the many things that makes this ring unique is that it’s one of the few bullfighting arenas in Spain that has a covered roof over the spectators. Depending upon your stature and wealth, you would be sold tickets accordingly to seat you either in the sun or shade.
Chiquita Carlita Y El Toro Roger
The Royal seating is just above the entrance door.
Over the years there’s been quite a bit of controversy over the hosting of bullfights all together and the concerns can be broken down into three categories:
1 – Cruelty to animals.
2 – It had some religious inappropriateness and was somewhat frowned upon by the church.
3 – It was economically unfeasible to sustain itself.
The museum portion featured the clothing of the Matadors, banners and symbols used in the bullfight, plus musical instruments used in the fanfare, and of course the weapons used to kill the bull. It’s hard to imagine how or why this became such fad during its heyday, but then again the Romans use to enjoy a good old bloodbath as well, and now the “civilized world” enjoys similar chaos and bloodshed either through staged events or video games. We’re a strange breed indeed us humans!
Within a short minute’s walk from the bullfight arena there’s a lookout with a stunning view to the Sierra mountains to the South.
Perched upon a 350 vertical rock face, sits a pagoda and crescent park/walkway that works its way around a hotel and over to the first view of the “new bridge” in all its grandeur perched high above the valley floor between two steep cliffs. Built around the mid 18th century, it’s the current vehicle and foot bridge from east to west Ronda.
Having a midday wobbly pop with Fran, Carla and Roger overlooking the two older bridges below, and the new bridge above. Old is a very relative term.
Below it lies what is now called the old bridge which also receives vehicle and foot traffic to a lesser degree, and below that is the really old bridge that was built for the Roman wagons and foot traffic.
While we were here there was a climbing contest going on and the climbers would repel down the tallest bridge into the water below while wearing wet suits and then climb up to the zip line from a viewing area mid way between the new and old bridge and then either climb up and over the old bridge once they zip lined to it, or just repel down again.
There’s also a photo session for a wedding taking place at the bottom of the ravine in this picture. The passageway down is through an ancient building aligned with a walkway just above the water level.
If you zoom in you can see the bride and groom at the bottom of the gorge.
On the perimeter fortress wall guarding Ronda like good Canadians.
As the sun began to set, we found a nice restaurant at the side of the bridge and we were treated to a full moon rising over a distant building on the other side of the gorge.
Several statutes and water features later, that was a wrap for Ronda for the day.
Hasta manana