The architect Francisco Pons-Sorolla and the reinvention of Ronda’s historical heritage

Abstract

The historic centre of Ronda was declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1966. This recognition was accompanied by a series of interventions by the General Directorate of Architecture, with the aim of conserving, restoring, and redeveloping the most important monumental spaces and buildings of the city. Many of these projects were signed or supervised by the architect Francisco Pons-Sorolla, in collaboration with other technicians such as Ramiro Moya Blanco, Rafael Manzano Martos and Víctor Caballero Ungría. Despite the importance of these actions, no study has been undertaken to show all these projects and transformations carried out on the different spaces and buildings involved. For this reason, there is a need to know and disseminate the whole of these actions, to assess that way of seeing and understanding the heritage action in divergence with the international criteria of the time. To this end, a compilation will be made of the projects carried out, showing original planimetry, new surveys, as well as photographic comparisons between previous and current states, to systematize them and make a first approximation of the approaches and criteria adopted, with the aim of understanding what they meant for the current interpretation of Ronda's historical heritage.