We spent a weekend in Ronda staying in the shopping area just outside of the old city and bridge. Our prior visit was with MWR back in October of 2013. On this visit we went to the Arab baths and got to see a local festival parade. Ronda came to more prominence with illustrious visitors such as Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway. Between the 13th and 15th century Ronda was a stronghold of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. It was in this time that the hamman or bath was constructed. These baths are an adaptation of the ancient Roman baths with the major difference being that the Romans would immerse themselves in water while the Moors used the areas as steam baths. The system of the structure is a reception area, then three rooms for cold, temperate, and hot with heating under the floor (hypocaust). The baths are always located at the outskirts of the city for religious cleansing and also for all ‘outsiders’ entering the city. The water was brought up via a water wheel from the Guadalevín River. The steam was achieved by emptying buckets of water over the burning heated floor of the first room. The receiving room has the latrine. The archway across the road was built in 1742 in the same location as a gate during the Moorish times. Access to the city was very much a fortress so each gate was very well guarded. The “Old Bridge” crosses the same valley as the larger and more prominent “New Bridge”. Very clever names. The Old Bridge was built in the 16th century after the Moorish period to connect the old Moorish settlement with the new quarter. The parade we saw is a part of the Ronda Romantica yearly fair in late May. Everybody is dressed up as in the late 18th and 19th century. My favorite part of the outfits was that one of the accessories was a gun. All of the boys loved those. Throughout the parade the people would fire them into the air. And then the soldiers with the small cannons would fire them off too. Owen was asleep and amazingly stayed asleep during one of the firing rounds.
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