The Devil’s Bridge at Ronda

Record summary

Ronda’s dramatic bridges and gorge have attracted devil-building and supernatural-construction motifs, especially in later local and tourist traditions surrounding the Puente Nuevo. The bridge’s construction history is documentable, but the “devil’s bridge” framing belongs to a broader European folklore type and should not be assumed to describe a specific eighteenth-century event. It may help compare hazardous landscapes, monumental architecture, and retrospective supernatural branding. Exact early attestations for Ronda’s version require local Spanish-language folklore and municipal sources.