Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
By Michael Coy
The locals know it as “El Barrio”, where they love to eat in the summer under the walls of the city. Now the news has emerged – the Barrio of San Francisco is getting a million-euro facelift.
Ronda’s mayor, María de la Paz Fernández, has announced that funds will be available in 2025 to remodel the Plaza Ruedo Alameda, the large square which dominates the Barrio.
The Madrid government receives tenders from towns throughout Spain every year to bid for the “Cultural Aid”. Ronda won for the third time.The result of the competition is that the square in Ronda will be remodeled. The plan, drawn up by the local architect Sergio Valadez, will see Madrid contribute a million Euros and the Ronda Town Hall match that investment with another million Euros.
In recent years Ronda has had great success in competing for central government grants. Twice recently significant investment has come the city’s way: work on the Alameda (the park near the bullring) and on the Mondragón Palace has all been financed by Madrid, after some adroit bidding by the Ayuntamiento.
Lovers of the Barrio need not worry unduly: the project promises to remain ‘sympathetic’ to the area’s cultural, historical and artistic legacy. The Junta de Andalucía (a rough equivalent of a British county council) has already studied the plans and is satisfied that no harm will come from the impending facelift. As the Barrio was listed as an “artistic site”, tests will be required between now and Easter to begin work in earnest.
The focus of much of the work is on pedestrian safety. At the moment the square has a ‘rim’, a step 8cm (3 inches) high which causes a lot of trips and stumbles. The rim will be removed. The square will be resurfaced with marble, and work will be undertaken to ‘train’ tree roots, so that they don’t break up the walking surface.
The Barrio will also benefit from a more efficient sewage system, and rainwater will be drained off. The vast central square, which is currently rather dark at night, will be fitted with LED lighting.
RONDA’S BARRIO – A SIGNIFICANT HISTORIC SITE
When Ronda (roughly between 700-1500AD) was a Muslim town, sharia required that burials take place outside of the city walls. The Barrio’s large square was Ronda’s cemetery.
The Christians captured Ronda at the end of the 1400s. The Christian army camped here during the siege. Pedro Romero, the most famous bullfighter in history (active between 1790 and 1810), lived on this square. The convent that once stood in the southeast corner of this plaza was destroyed by the Ronda people (who were traditionally anti-Church) when the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936. The square’s old name (Almocábar) is in fact an Arabic word, referring to its use as a burial ground.
The Barrio’s two gates
In Ronda, words like ‘old’ and ‘new’ have a special meaning. The ‘new’ bridge has been standing for 250 years, and the ‘old’ bridge has had more plastic surgery than Zsa-zsa Gabor’s face.
However, no-one disputes that the Barrio’s ‘old’ gate really is very old.
The gate was built in the 13th century. It has a classic horseshoe shape, which is characteristic of medieval Arab architectural style. The ‘new’ gate was added in the 1500s, to ease the flow of traffic (mules and pedestrians in those days) in and out of the city.
The throne dates from Charles I of Spain’s reign, who was the son of Queen Joan “the Mad” and united the thrones Spain, Netherlands, Austria. Oddly, photos from the Victorian period show the tall gothic church of Santo Espiritu looking exactly as it does today, but these two venerable and ancient gates are clearly standing at right angles to each other – so how come they are now, today, facing in the same direction?
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