Museums in Ronda

Ronda offers various musea for visitors to discover.
Together they cover about any topic on history, art and bullfighting in Ronda.

Enfrente Arte recommends the following museums.

Lara's Museum

Located in the 18th century 'Palace of the Counts of the Conquest', in the middle of the historic city quarter, next to the Tajo of Ronda, the museum is part of an interesting series of buildings with a palace architecture.

Lara's Museum is an art and antiques museum, exhibiting one of the most important private collections of Spain. Featuring more than 2000 works classified in various great collections.
Art, archaeology, science, popular arts and tools in the world of communication come together to present a wide and varied walk through the history of Ronda.

The following galleries can be admired:
* Clocks gallery
* Weapons gallery
* Science gallery
* Romantic gallery
* Popular arts gallery
* Archaeology gallery
* Knifes collection
* Bullfighting art gallery
* Music Instruments gallery

Museum Lara recently opened due to the private initiative of its promoter, Juan Lara Jurado, who has achieved to restore the noble identity and artistic magnificience of the Counts of the Conquest of the Batans Islands' Palace.
This was a former residence of some members of the Spanish Royal Family during their visits to Ronda.

Located at the Armiñan Street
Tel: 952871263
museolara.org - spanish only !!

The Bandits Museum - Bandoleros in Ronda

This is the only museum about bandoleros in Spain.
It tells the story of the Romantic Age of the Bandits
and shows the history of this social phenomenon.
The museum presents a tour of documents, pictures, personal details and events happened to the bandoleros who lived in the Serrania de Ronda.

The museum consists of four galleries:
* Gallery of the Romantic Travellers.

*Exhibition of paintings and historical documents
( like birth and death certificates, edicts, royal laws, ... )

*Gallery 'Living the Bandits world'.
( It consists of dioramas, pictures, weapons, money and coins, official stamps, paintings, ... )

*Gallery 'The Men and the Names'.
( It is dedicated to the better known bandoleros still remembered : Diego Corrientes, José María El Tempranillo, el Tragabuches, ... )

*Gallery 'The ones who followed the trace'.
( Special mention to the Guardia Civil , a police force specialized in the fight against bandits. It shows their clothes, pictures, documents, ... )

Located at the Armiñan Street
Tel: 952 87 77 85.
museobandolero.com - spanish only !!

Bullfighting Museum Ronda

Located in the bullring - Plaza de Toros

Authentic tour through the history of bullfighting and the bullfighting festivities that took place in the bullring of Ronda.

Ronda’s bullring, the forerunner and oldest of the five Maestranza bullrings, was inaugurated in 1785, under the auspices of the Maestranza ('Royal Cavalry Order of Ronda', an equestrian society responsible for the military and equestrian training of the aristocracy) and is considered the cathedral of bullfighting.
The objective of this museum is to offer information about the 'Maestranza', its influence on the development and evolution of the art of bullfighting and the place it occupies in the history of both bullfighting and Ronda.

The public exhibition area offers :
* works, editions and documents related to the Royal Cavalry Order
* a collection of writings concerning horse riding
* a sellection of Goya's bulfighting paintings, and, in addition to them, comments about bullfighting at the romantic age written by foreign authors interested in it.

Contents:
* The knight's bullfighting
* The bull at the universal culture
* Popular bullfighting
* Modern bullfighting
* Ronda's bullfighters dinasties: The Romeros and the Ordoñez

Nowadays the goyesca costume bullfights are the highlight of the Pedro Romero Fair that takes place each year at the beginning of September in the Ronda bullring. Organised by Francisco Rivera Ordóñez, in imitation of his grandfather as the impresario of the Ronda ring, the fair also includes a traditional bullfight with lances (rejones) and a bullfight without picadors for the pupils of schools of bullfighting.
An exhibition of carriages, organised by the Royal Club of Carriages of Andalusia, Ronda Town Council and the Real Maestranza de Caballería of Ronda, is the wonderful final touch of the festivities held annually in the Ronda bullring.

Ronda's impressive stone-built and deliberately neo-classical bullring was completed in 1784, twenty years too late for the founder of the corrida's most celebrated dynasty, Francisco Romero, who had died in 1763, but just in time for his already legendary grandson, Pedro, who was thirty years old and in his prime. He would become synonymous with Ronda, its romance and its myths, and the ring in which his legend was forged would outlive all of its ephemeral predecessors to become the most venerable symbol of Spain's peculiar and controversial art.

Romero himself became so famous that a distinctive uniform was designed for him by Spain's greatest living artist, Goya. This is still worn in special commemorative corridas, and the annual corrida goyesca in Ronda, held in early September, which includes a competition for the most decorative horse-drawn carriages and a flamenco festival.

In the 20th century Ronda produced a second dynasty of bullfighters, the Ordonez family, further contributing to the history of bullfighting. The two main figures were Cayetano Ordoñez (1904-1961) and his son Antonio (1932-1998). Their particular approach to bullfighting caught the attention of Ernest Hemingway who dedicated his works 'Fiesta' and 'Death in the Afternoon' to them.
Plaza de Toros Museum Ronda

Museum of Ronda

Located at the Mondragon Palace.

This Mudejar-style palace, dating from the early fourteenth century, has been completely restored and now houses the municipal museum and conference centre, and is the headquarters for the Spanish courses organised by the University of Malaga during the summer. Its position, crowning a rocky outcrop, converts the whole of Ronda It was the home of the ill-fated Hamet el Zegri, Ronda's last Moorish governor, though he might not recognise it today. It has undergone major changes and additions over the years, the first ordered by the catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, who stayed there during the 1490s. The present garden is a later addition, and the front gallery is modern. More significantly, the entire outer building surrounding the inner courtyards (where el Zegri would certainly still feel at home) dates only from the 18th Century. That facade is still genuinely impressive. Two small towers flank a superb doorway through which visitors pass to gain entrance to a building which, centuries after Hamet el Zegri left it for the last time still speaks proudly of a vanished glory. This amazing palace is an architectural jewel from 18th century,known also as Palace of the Marquis of Villasierra. It is a magnificient building, probably Ronda's most significative civil building.

The museum's 'Exposition Area', containing Ronda's most representative cultural assets, hosts 3 sections :

* Historical Section
It shows the richness, variety and historical significance of Ronda's archaeological patrimony, like a witness of Ronda's ancient and recent past.
This section consists of the following galleries:
* the Cave World
* the Megalithic World
* Monography about Acinipo
* the funerary Roman World
* Ancient Ronda
* the funerary Arab World
* the city's evolution as geographycal and historical space
* Ronda in the 19th century.

* Ethnography Section
This section shows examples of Ronda's most representative ethnographic patrimony, authentic popular creations and sign of our own identity. It shows a dynamic and live representation, offering various sensations.The ethnography section consists of five galleries, being remarkable the world of the corks work, the still, the traditional cheese production, the kitchen, as well as a space dedicated to the pig's slaughter and to the saddlery work, that means, to different economic aspects concerning the traditional region's production, transformation and consum.

Inside the museum four different zones can be distinguished, according to the aim and function :
* Exposition area,
* Investigation area
* Storage area
* Services area

The exposition's area consists of different galleries forming each one the different museum's sections. The three sections . Environment Section This section tries to offer to the visitors an outlook to Ronda's environment and the different aspects it consists of. In that way, the different natural spaces existing in the region (Natural Park of Sierra de las Nieves, Natural Park of Los Alcornocales and Natural Park of Grazalema) are the basical assets of this section. The rest of the areas are places where the techical, investigation, storage and own museum services matters are worked, as a normal aspect of one institution of this kind. Restoration workshop, pedagogical bureau, shops, bar, gardens, experiments room, multiple use room, library, movie room, etc.

Museum of Joaquín Peinado

Placed in the Palace of Moztezuma. Civil building where there is exhibited an important collection (drawings and oils) of the painter from Ronda Joaquín peinado, Distinguished member from the Spanish School of Paris. Ronda 1898- Paris. The museum of Peinado is located at the Palace of Moctezuma, at the Giant's square, inside the historic city quarter. The palace where the museum is located was built at the end ot the 19th century, with an eclectic style. Remarkable places of the palace are the two courtyards inside it. One of them has got a classic look, with a lintel based ond Toscan columns over high bull's stone pedestals. The other one has got a fine roof hold by fine columns made of the same material. Joaquín Peinado was born in Ronda 1898. He was a follower of Cèzanne and considered to be a spiritual son of Picasso, being the most elegant painters of the 'spanish school' of Paris. He died in Paris 1975. The different creative periods of the painter, from 1923, when he moved to Paris, since 1974, few months before his death, can be observed walking through the rooms of this museum, where more than 190 paintings can be seen. Under them can be admired some since our days unknown drawings, which can be seen at this museum for the first time, and which come from the painter's private folders. This drawings came with Peinado all his life long. Other important pieces are his oil, watercolor and wax paintings and graphic works. Paintings like 'Still life with pears', 'Figure with a dove', 'The fruit bowl' and 'a female nude', have got an important place under Peinados's work, beside his collection of sea paintings. Joaquin Peinado, born in 1898, a contemporary of Cezanne and Picasso. Less known than the two great Impressionists, Peinado, a painter of vision and clarity, nevertheless today retains an impressive reputation in the art world.

Arab Baths

It is a lovely walk down through the old town, passing under the arch of Felipe V, to the best preserved 'hammam' or public baths in Andalusia. At dawn from Puente Vieja, the sight of the roman Bridge and the Arab baths show how little the surroundings have changed since the reconquest in this part of Ronda Definitely worth a visit, this is a fascinating remnant of Ronda's Moorish past. It has wonderful star shaped windows and octagonal brick columns and although in ruins, there is a refurbishment being undertaken This thermal building of the arab time is the best conserved of its kind at the Iberian Peninsula. It is located at the old arab quarter of the city, today called San Miguel Quarter, being the formerly outside quarter of the arab medina (city) of Ronda.The bahts were built near the Arroyo de las Culebras (snakes' stream), a perfect place in order to be provided of water, which was moved by a waterwheel, in an current perfect conservation state. The chronology of the Ronda arab bahts starts at the 13th-14th centuries. The baths are divided into three main zones, following the Roman model of thermal buildings:cold water, warm water and hot water bathrooms. The hydraulic system of the thermal bath has arrived to our days almost complete.

Hunting Museum

It shows part of the wild hunting fauna of serrania de Ronda as well as other different animal species coming from other continents. Building of 18th century. Tel: 952 87 78 62