Churches

Churches in Ronda

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churches and religion in ronda

Ronda is famous for it’s churches built after the reconquest as Catholic Spain asserted it’s control over the formerly Muslim city. Four of the many churches in Ronda are especially noted for their architecture or the story behind them, and all are part of every great tour of Ronda.

Christianity in Ronda began with Visigothic control of Iberia after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, and quickly became the dominant faith. Arab invaders entered Iberia and overran the Visigoths beginning in 711 AD, and until 1485 Ronda was a Muslim stronghold alternating between liberal interpretations of Muslim faith and the more conservative Sharia versions.

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Iglesia de Nuestro Padre Jesús Ronda

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Iglesia Nuestro Padre Jesus, Ronda

Originally built at the end of the 15th century and beginning of the 16th century the church was dedicated to Santa Cecilia who at the time of the reconquest was enjoying a great deal of popularity as the patron saint of musicians and churches.

The tower and entrance of Padre Jesús is gothic having been part of the original church, the remainder is renaissance period.

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Rupestrian Church Virgen de la Cabeza

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Rupestrian Church, Virgen de la Cabeza

Built by Mozarab Christians around the time of ibn Hafsun’s uprising during the Umayyad dynasty at the end of the 9th century, Virgen de la Cabeza (Virgin of the Head) is believed to have been primarily a chapel and hermitage for Christian Monks, and is a classic example of Mozarab rupestrian churches, although sadly one of the last remaining.

Also known as the Cuevas de San Antón, the church was originally the site of a small area of worship from shortly after the Arab invasion of Iberia, but during the Mozarab uprising, and while Ronda was nominally independent under ibn Hafsun, the original cave was enlarged to house a permanent hermitage of upto 10 monks. The entire church is not large in comparison to the other churches in Ronda, but is still 272 square metres in area.

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Nuestra Señora del Socorro

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The church of muestra Señora del Socorro in Ronda

The parish church of Socorro (Parroquia de Nuestra Señora del Socorro) was only built in 1956 but it and the plaza around it feature prominently on every walking tour of Ronda. The ground on which the church stands was the location of a parish chapel, a hospital, and before that a Muslim chapel.

During the reconquest of Ronda the plaza in front of the church was the campsite of Don Tello de Girón, the Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava. After the reconquest the Order of Calatrava built a residence in the site of the current church for their Grand Master, the last of whom, Don García López de Padilla, generously gave the house and its land for the purpose of a hospital for the poor and travelling pilgrims.

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