Puerta de Almocabar

City Gate and City Walls in Ronda

Puerta Y Murallas De Almocábar Ronda — CC BY-SA 3.0 / Panarria

City Wall Ronda, Spain — CC BY-SA 2.0 / IMBiblio

City Walls With Church Ronda Spain — CC BY-SA 2.0 / Julia Kostecka

City Walls Ronda 04 — CC BY-SA 3.0 / Tajchman

The Puerta de Almocabar is one of the 13th century city gates through the city walls of Ronda in Spain. There are two city gates here, the Puerta de Almocabar and the later Charles V Gate. The Almocabar Walls are located on the southern side of Ronda and and well preserved and you can walk along the walls.

13th century Puerta de Almocabar

Ronda was considered a very strong defensive city due to its geographical location, on a rocky promontory and massive fortress walls and gates which were built during the Islamic period. Inside the old city walls, the Islamic layout remains intact. The maze of narrow streets also take their character from the Renaissance mansions of powerful families whose predecessors accompanied Fernando el Católico in the taking of the city in 1485.

The construction of the 13th century Puerta de Almocabar

This construction, which dates back to the 13th century, is made up of three consecutive doors flanked by two semicircular towers, which should have been used for the guard and for the opening and closing mechanism of the gate, which, as a “slide”, was moved from vertical form between the second and the third door, thus giving extra protection to this access.

Where does the name of Puerta de Almocabar come from?

The Almocabar gate and Almocabar walls take there name from the Moorish word ‘Al maqabir’ meaning cemetery. By tradition Moorish cemeteries were built outside the city walls and the one at Ronda was located opposite the gate in what is now the Plaza Ruedo Alameda.

16th century Charles V Gate

The Charles V Gate was built by Charles V in the 16th century in a renaissance style. Above the arch is a crest containing the Spanish empire eagle on it. As you look at the gates this one is on the left.