Ronda has Roman, Arab and romantic history, although it can be hard to feel it when caught up in a crocodile of tourists following a guide with megaphone and flag. Travel up into the mountains 12 miles north-west of Ronda, however, and if you’re early enough, you can have an entire Roman town to yourself.
Nothing much has happened here since the town of Acinipo was abandoned some time in the fourth century. The site is fenced and there is a watchman but little in the way of infrastructure or, thankfully, re-enactments and interpretations.
Half a mile or so from the entrance, at the top of the hill, there is a 2,000-seat Roman theatre dating back to the first century AD. With its facade, towering narrow arch and seating intact, it’s one of the best preserved Roman theatres in Spain, and it is literally and metaphorically the high point of Acinipo; most of the other buildings have been reduced to rubble.
In Roman times the town was important – a strategic point between Seville, Cordoba and the Cadiz and Malaga coasts – and wealthy. If you have a good imagination or a background in archaeology, it’s possible to envisage the walls around the paved forum and the bustle of the populace, the statues on the many empty plinths, the temples and houses, and the men discussing politics in the baths (cold, warm and hot).
The entire windswept site is full of rocks from collapsed buildings, some brought by the Romans from El Torcal de Antequera, 30km north of Málaga; others are local and were first used in the Neolithic, bronze and copper age settlements that predated the Romans by a couple of millennia. There are remains of the oldest dwellings nearer the entrance. To stand here is a priceless kind of time travel.
• Open Wednesday to Sunday, 9am-2.30pm, free. Nearest village, Montecorto
