Plaza de España

The Plaza de España

The Ronda audio-guided tour leads you to the Plaza de España, at the edge of the Tajo gorges, at the junction between the old town and the more recent part of Ronda.

At the edge of the gorges, between history and memory

The building that dominates the square is the former town hall, built in the eighteenth century on the old arcades, become the Parador de Ronda, a hotel offering spectacular views over the Puente Nuevo. At the centre stands the bust of Antonio de los Ríos Rosas, a politician born in Ronda, several times president of the Congress of Deputies in the nineteenth century. The square also carries a painful memory: Ernest Hemingway situates there, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, tragic events of the Spanish civil war, when prisoners were gathered in the town hall before being thrown near the cliff. Today renovated and animated with terraces, the square remains one of the centres of life of Ronda.

What there is to see

The Plaza de España offers an exceptional situation at the edge of the gorges, facing the Puente Nuevo, with the Parador and its history as a backdrop. A lively place laden with memory, it invites one to contemplate the landscape while remembering the dark hours it knew. It is a central stage, between the old town and modern Ronda.

Practical information

The Plaza de España is at the end of the Puente Nuevo, in Ronda. A public square, it can be walked freely at all hours and on the level; the Parador and the cafés follow their own hours.

What became of the former town hall of the square?

It became the Parador de Ronda, a hotel offering spectacular views over the Puente Nuevo and the gorges.

Which writer evoked the Plaza de España?

Ernest Hemingway, who situates there in For Whom the Bell Tolls tragic events of the Spanish civil war.