11 May 2010

Setenil de las Bodegas - Spanish Town Carved from Rock

Sometimes it makes sense not to establish a settlement atop a gorge but to mould one’s buildings along it instead.  So it is in Andalucia where the incredible town of Setenil de las Bodegas which has its modern roots in the fifteenth century although there is evidence of habitation for millennia before that.

People flock to the village because there is, quite simply, nothing else like it in the world.  It looks like something from a fantasy novel – an urban situation of size set within a gigantic gorge.  The dwelling places were created by the excavation of the base of the mountain and the addition of an external wall.

11 April 2010

Ronda, Spain - Amazing Pictures of the Mountainous Town

The town of Ronda in Malaga, Spain dates back to Neolithic times.  The town of over thirty thousand people is built either side of a dizzying ravine.  There are three bridges which span the gap between the sides.  First there is the Puente Romano or Roman Bridge. There is the Puente Viejo or Old Bridge, and then comes the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge – which is the name it was given when it was completed in 1793).

Here are some amazing pictures of the town.