Camino de Ronda

Street in Granada

The Camino de Ronda is the inner moat around the Alhambra. It served two purposes, if need arose it would have been a moat, but when not in use a such it was one of the main roads called Calle de Ronda or Street of the Round as the palatine guard made of it. It was also called Calle del Foso or Street of the Moat.

The Camino de Ronda was the true Calle Mayor or Main Street of the complex, affording rapid communication all along the battlements. Currently, the Calle de Ronda is interrupted and lost by reforms that already started in the Middle Ages, so its layout is not recognized in various sectors.

Best place to see the Camino de Ronda

In the northeast section of the wall, following the Paseo de las Torres , we find one of the best examples of the Calle de Ronda in the section between Paseo de las Torres and the Torre del Cabo de la Carrera.

Where does the Name Camino de Ronda come from?

A chemin de ronde is French, for “round path”‘ or “patrol path”; also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement. In early fortifications, high castle walls were difficult to defend from the ground. The chemin de ronde was devised as a walkway allowing defenders to patrol the tops of ramparts, protected from the outside by the battlements or a parapet, placing them in an advantageous position for shooting or dropping.

The Camino de Ronda appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Granada!

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