Ronda - History

History

Around the city are remains of prehistoric settlements dating to the Neolithic Age, including the rock paintings of Cueva de la Pileta. Ronda was however first settled by the early Celts, who, in the 6th century BC, called it Arunda. Later Phoenician settlers established themselves nearby to found Acinipo, known locally as Ronda la Vieja, Arunda or Old Ronda. The current Ronda is however of Roman origins, having been founded as a fortified post in the Second Punic War, by Scipio Africanus. Ronda received the title of city at the time of Julius Caesar.

In the 5th century AD Ronda was conquered by the Suebi, led by Rechila, being reconquered in the following century by the Eastern Roman Empire, under whose rule Acinipo was abandoned. Later the Visigoth king Leovigild captured the city. Ronda was part of the Visigoth reign until 713, when it fell to the Arabs, who named it Izn-Rand Onda ("city of the castle") and made it the capital of the Takurunna province.

It was the hometown of the polymath Abbas Ibn Firnas (810–887), an inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet, and Andalusian musician.

After the disintegration of the caliphate of Córdoba, Ronda became the capital of a small kingdom ruled by the Berber Banu Ifran, the taifa of Ronda. During this period Ronda received most of its Islamic architectural heritage. In 1065 Ronda was conquered by the taifa of Seville led by Abbad II al-Mu'tadid. Both the poet Salih ben Sharif al-Rundi (1204–1285) and the Sufi scholar Ibn Abbad al-Rundi (1333–1390) were born in Ronda.

The Islamic domination of Ronda ended in 1485, when it was conquered by the Marquis of Cádiz after a brief siege. Subsequently, mostly of the city's old edifices were renewed or adapted to Christian roles, while numerous others were built in newly-created quarters such as Mercadillo and San Francisco. The Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda was founded in the town in 1572, with military finalities.

The Spanish Inquisitions affected the Muslims living in Spain greatly. Shortly after 1492, when the last outpost of Muslim presence in the Iberian peninsula, Granada, was conquered, the Spanish decreed that all Muslims and Jews must either vacate the peninsula without their belongings or convert to Christianity. Many people overtly converted to keep their possessions, while secretly practiced their religion. Muslims who converted only overtly were called Moriscos. Moriscos were required to wear upon their caps and turbans a blue crescent, which brought upon them taunts and violence of a fanatical population. Traveling without a permit meant a death sentence. This systematic suppression forced the Muslims to seek refuge in mountainous regions of southern Andalusia; Ronda was one such refuge.

On May 25, 1566 Philip II decreed the use of the Arabic language (written or spoken) illegal, doors to homes to remain open on Fridays to verify that no Muslim Friday prayers were conducted, and heavy taxation on Moriscos trades. This led to several rebellions, one of them in Ronda under the leadership of Al-Fihrey. After a ferocious battle, Al-Fihrey's insurgent army was able to defeat the Spanish army sent to suppress them under the leadership of Alfonso de Aguilar. So violent was the retribution that no Spanish soldier captured was spared his life, including Alfonso himself. This prompted Phillip II to order the massacre of all Moriscos in Ronda. Those few who survived were sold into slavery.

In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic invasion and the subsequent Peninsular War caused much suffering in Ronda, whose inhabitants were reduced from 15,600 to 5,000 in three years. Ronda's area became the base first of guerrilla warriors, then of numerous bandits, whose deeds inspired artists such as Washington Irving, Prosper Mérimée and Gustave Doré. In the 19th century the economy of Ronda was mainly based on agricultural activities. In 1918 the city was the seat of the Assembly of Ronda, in which the Andalusian flag, coat of arms and anthem were designed.

Ronda's Romero family—from Francisco, born in 1698, to his son Juan, to his famous grandson Pedro, who died in 1839—played a principal role in the development of modern Spanish bullfighting. In a family responsible for such innovations as the use of the cape, or muleta, and a sword especially designed for the kill, Pedro in particular transformed bullfighting into "an art and a skill in its own right, and not simply ... a clownishly macho preamble to the bull's slaughter."

Ronda was heavily affected by the Spanish Civil War, after which much of the population emigrated elsewhere. The famous scene in Chapter 10 of Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls", describing the 1936 execution of Fascist sympathisers in a (fictional) village who are thrown off a cliff, is considered to be modeled on actual events at the time in Ronda.