Spain Destinations: Puente De Ronda, Malaga

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This impressive bridge in the city of Ronda, South of Spain, was completed in 1793, after almost 40 years of construction and the loss of 50 workers’ lives. The bridge was hastily built and not strong enough and in 1741 the entire bridge collapsed taking 50 souls to their deaths in the gorge below.

The project was first proposed by King Felipe V in 1735, to improve an earlier and impossibly steep 16th century bridge. The current bridge stands 98m from base to top and spans 66m from side to side. A macabre rumor persists to this day that during the Spanish Civil War prisoners were thrown to their deaths from the bridge, and it was supposedly written about by Ernest Hemingway in the novel For Whom The Bell Tolls. We may have to read the book to find out!