RONDA: CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA LA MAYOR

The guide for our walking tour of Ronda was our only male guide and easily the most colorful.  Don Diego might have been pushing 90, but his age never got in the way either of his commentary or of his pace.

Although he showed us many of Ronda's sights on our walk-around tour, here I am focusing on the shots I got of the Church of Santa Maria la Mayor.  Technically, the church is not a cathedral, as it is not the home for an archbishopric, but I think the locals consider it as a sort of informal cathedral anyway.

The church did have a few architectural charms, but I didn't capture many of those, perhaps because our guide had a lot of ground to cover for the tour or because his interests were not so much architectural as cultural.  In any event, I did garner a few architectural shots, including the following.

Some lovely archwork at the entrance.

An interior pillar.

And a ceiling detail.

But perhaps more interesting were some of the possessions found in the church.

A very simple crucifix.

An ancient hymnal.

And a most unusual mural of the Last Supper in which the disciples are women rather than men.

I was really fortunate to get this photo as we were simply passing by and I only got one shot with an exposure of 1/3 second, almost impossibly long for a decent handheld shot.

Finally, one last shot of Don Diego, leading the group.

John