Palacio de Mondragón
Palacio de Mondragón
4
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
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4.0
484 reviews
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Saltpilgrim
Paros, Greece21,844 contributions
May 2023 • Family
Palacio de Mondragón is also known as Palacio del Marqués de Villasierra. It was built in 1314 to be the residence of the Moorish governor of the city of Abomelik, son of the king of Morocco. Although its size is not particularly large, it successfully combines Andalusian mudejar architecture with Renaissance elements. You can admire mudejar ceilings, doors and windows, with ceramic tiles, columns, mosaics and balconies around the inner courtyard. The palace's fountain gardens literally hang over the edge of the city's precipitous gorge, offering visitors magnificent views and a real peace of mind break. On the upper floor of the palace, the Municipal Museum is located, in whose halls are housed exhibits from the entire long history of Andalusia.
Written October 15, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Joerg-Ulrichr
Obernkirchen, Germany670 contributions
Oct 2023 • Solo
I would describe this museum as an archaeological museum. The museum is very small and is located in the historic old town. Visitors are shown various small and historical rooms. Visitors can also examine various archaeological pieces such as sculptures, vases, jugs, etc. Highly recommended!
Written December 30, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GabrielaSeevetal
Seevetal, Germany9,904 contributions
Sep 2023 • Couples
The Palacio de Mondragon dates from the 16th century. It is the most important civil building in the city with a beautiful Renaissance portal and a typical Moorish double window. The inner courtyards are decorated in the Mudejar style. The Catholic Monarchs once resided here. Today the palace houses the "Museo Principal". There is a beautiful view from the outside terrace.
Beautiful photo opportunities.
Beautiful photo opportunities.
Written January 12, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
ANAISA
9 contributions
Aug 2024 • Family
I highly recommend it.
In our stay in Ronda we visited the last day and I regret that we could not spend much time.
I would have stayed a lot longer.
Very interesting, and very well preserved building.
It has extensive visiting hours.
I do not know the price because I visited it within the bonus of 9 monuments we bought at the tourist office.
It is inside the pedestrian perimeter on beautiful cobblestone streets, whitewashed, and wrapped between orange trees and bougainvillea.
In our stay in Ronda we visited the last day and I regret that we could not spend much time.
I would have stayed a lot longer.
Very interesting, and very well preserved building.
It has extensive visiting hours.
I do not know the price because I visited it within the bonus of 9 monuments we bought at the tourist office.
It is inside the pedestrian perimeter on beautiful cobblestone streets, whitewashed, and wrapped between orange trees and bougainvillea.
Automatically translated
Written September 11, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
tripsandfood55
London, UK4,679 contributions
Nov 2021
A great public museum. The garden, and ground floor patios are largely as they were during Moorish times. Nice gardens, courtyards, balconies & water features, and providing stunning views of the Sierra de Grazalema. We would recommend and return back to view again in future years if in the area. Not a very big house / museum, but value for money.
Written February 11, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mr_rossduncan
Adelaide, Australia664 contributions
Aug 2017 • Couples
We had a one day trip down from Seville to Ronda and wandering around we passed by what we took to be an old palace converted into a museum.
We'd visited a couple of places like that, one in Seville at the Las Duenas villa and one in Madrid at the Museo Cerralbo, both places we rated very highly, a must see in our opinion, thinking the Mondragon palace would be of similar ilk we forked out our 3:50 euros each and ventured inside hoping to see a glimpse of the way life was lived by the high society folks in old Ronda.
Sadly its nothing of the sort, a few empty courtyards downstairs and upstairs a cluster of hot and stuffy rooms dedicated to pre-history and Roman history of the peninsular.
To be fair they have a pretty good collection of ancient artifacts, and some of the displays are fine, with good English signage, it's just all a bit dusty and seems like a waste of the old palace. Probably a good spot for history students or primary aged kids.
We'd visited a couple of places like that, one in Seville at the Las Duenas villa and one in Madrid at the Museo Cerralbo, both places we rated very highly, a must see in our opinion, thinking the Mondragon palace would be of similar ilk we forked out our 3:50 euros each and ventured inside hoping to see a glimpse of the way life was lived by the high society folks in old Ronda.
Sadly its nothing of the sort, a few empty courtyards downstairs and upstairs a cluster of hot and stuffy rooms dedicated to pre-history and Roman history of the peninsular.
To be fair they have a pretty good collection of ancient artifacts, and some of the displays are fine, with good English signage, it's just all a bit dusty and seems like a waste of the old palace. Probably a good spot for history students or primary aged kids.
Written August 10, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bruce W
Mijas, Spain1,774 contributions
Dec 2018 • Couples
Palacio Mondragon is to be found in the Plaza Mondragon, between the Plaza Maria Auiliadora and the Plaza Duquesa de Parcent in the old city. And in this we have a delightfully attractive palace that, prior to its last renovation, was in ruins. As Moorish palaces go it’s fairly small, but it contains many interesting details, some of which have been substantially renovated and part modernised. The balconied inner courtyards, the Mudejar ceilings and some original tiling are there, but the main features are the remaining water gardens, somewhat smaller versions akin to the Generalife gardens at Granada. This is one of the properties that line the edge of the Tajo Gorge and provide superb views to the Serrania of Ronda.
The upper floor of the Palacio provides a home for Ronda’s museum and a permanent display of local natural history, which gives a good insight into the formation of Ronda from the times before the Moors arrived.
The generally accepted date of construction of the Palacio is 1314 and it appears to have a genuine Moorish pedigree, so if any building has a claim to be called the house of the Moorish King, it is this one. Some say that it was built for King Abomelik (one of the several versions of his name), but he didn’t appear on the scene until around the 1330’s, somewhat later than the construction date of the Palacio. So, if the palace was not built for him, he may well have lived in it.
One who actually did live in the Palacio Mondragon was Hamet el Zegri, the last Moorish governor of Ronda since it had become incorporated into the Emirate of Granada and what was the final Muslim dynasty to be located on the Iberian peninsular.
Stacks to explore, both inside and out and the sort of place you will find yourself visiting more than once.
Thanks for reading this and if you've found it helpful I'd appreciate a ‘thumbs up’ below.
The upper floor of the Palacio provides a home for Ronda’s museum and a permanent display of local natural history, which gives a good insight into the formation of Ronda from the times before the Moors arrived.
The generally accepted date of construction of the Palacio is 1314 and it appears to have a genuine Moorish pedigree, so if any building has a claim to be called the house of the Moorish King, it is this one. Some say that it was built for King Abomelik (one of the several versions of his name), but he didn’t appear on the scene until around the 1330’s, somewhat later than the construction date of the Palacio. So, if the palace was not built for him, he may well have lived in it.
One who actually did live in the Palacio Mondragon was Hamet el Zegri, the last Moorish governor of Ronda since it had become incorporated into the Emirate of Granada and what was the final Muslim dynasty to be located on the Iberian peninsular.
Stacks to explore, both inside and out and the sort of place you will find yourself visiting more than once.
Thanks for reading this and if you've found it helpful I'd appreciate a ‘thumbs up’ below.
Written March 27, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Turista-Inglesa
Estepona, Spain45,616 contributions
May 2022 • Couples
An exquisite piece of history - don't miss it!
.
This building, dating from the early 14th Century but much extended over the years, together with the Villa Paz next door, belonged for seven centuries to the Vázquez de Mondragón family until it was bought by the Ronda city council about 25 years ago, restored (it was in a pretty poor condition) and turned into a municipal museum.
It is - and always has been - the most important private dwelling in Ronda, and makes a fascinating visit, although I would have liked it better if it had had furnishings, as you find in English stately homes that you can walk around. And in fact I knew it when it WAS furnished . . .
It was until fairly recently always called the Casa de Mondragón - the house - not the palace. An English company rented it from the Vázquez de Mondragón family in the 1970's for a couple of years, using it as the hospitality centre for horse-riding and hiking holidays. They baptised it as a Palace, as it looked better on their brochures, and it's stuck.
The garden is delightful, with water features, some of which begin inside the house and then flow outside. Flowing water in a garden or courtyard is a typically Moorish feature - don't let's forget the seven centuries of Moorish rule in Ronda, which have left their mark in many ways.
The house has the typical Moorish/Andalusian interior courtyards, with balconies above acting as the corridors between the rooms, gracious pillars holding them up, flowerpots and cobbles in the centre. There is an enormous (but hidden) "aljibe" underground just inside the heavy front door - a water tank for that most precious of liquids; it is probably the original one from eight centuries ago.
The top floor has been made into the municipal museum. The exhibits change from time to time, but one pretty constant feature is the (how can I say this?) the non-standard English translations going with the exhibits. Gibberish. This adds an extra spice to the displays, as you try to fathom out what on earth they mean. Giggle.
The Vázquez de Mondragón family lived in the house, or palace, (with spinster aunts next door in the Villa Paz) until the mid 1970's. In summer when the fierce Andalusian sun gave temperatures of 35-38 Centrigrade, the little streams and the shady courtyards kept the house cooler, although the family would usually escape to lower temperatures down on the coast where they had more properties..
In winter when the icy winds came off the Sierra, and the streams in the garden sometimes glazed over, the house was freezing, the main form of heating being the "mesa de camilla", which is a table with a thick tablecloth down to the ground, and underneath a brass tray filled with hot coals. You sit round it, have the tablecloth up around your waist, so your legs are nice and cosy and the rest of you is still freezing! There is also a danger of dying from carbon monoxide posioning if the room is airtight.
This is the point at which I must tell you how I know all this - and a great deal more - about the Palacio de Mondragón. The last owner, Manuel Rodríguez Pulido y Fernández de la Reguera y Vázquez de Mondragón, was my uncle. Or rather, uncle-in-law.
I'm just glad I was never in charge of sewing on his nametapes when he was a boy. :-)
.
This building, dating from the early 14th Century but much extended over the years, together with the Villa Paz next door, belonged for seven centuries to the Vázquez de Mondragón family until it was bought by the Ronda city council about 25 years ago, restored (it was in a pretty poor condition) and turned into a municipal museum.
It is - and always has been - the most important private dwelling in Ronda, and makes a fascinating visit, although I would have liked it better if it had had furnishings, as you find in English stately homes that you can walk around. And in fact I knew it when it WAS furnished . . .
It was until fairly recently always called the Casa de Mondragón - the house - not the palace. An English company rented it from the Vázquez de Mondragón family in the 1970's for a couple of years, using it as the hospitality centre for horse-riding and hiking holidays. They baptised it as a Palace, as it looked better on their brochures, and it's stuck.
The garden is delightful, with water features, some of which begin inside the house and then flow outside. Flowing water in a garden or courtyard is a typically Moorish feature - don't let's forget the seven centuries of Moorish rule in Ronda, which have left their mark in many ways.
The house has the typical Moorish/Andalusian interior courtyards, with balconies above acting as the corridors between the rooms, gracious pillars holding them up, flowerpots and cobbles in the centre. There is an enormous (but hidden) "aljibe" underground just inside the heavy front door - a water tank for that most precious of liquids; it is probably the original one from eight centuries ago.
The top floor has been made into the municipal museum. The exhibits change from time to time, but one pretty constant feature is the (how can I say this?) the non-standard English translations going with the exhibits. Gibberish. This adds an extra spice to the displays, as you try to fathom out what on earth they mean. Giggle.
The Vázquez de Mondragón family lived in the house, or palace, (with spinster aunts next door in the Villa Paz) until the mid 1970's. In summer when the fierce Andalusian sun gave temperatures of 35-38 Centrigrade, the little streams and the shady courtyards kept the house cooler, although the family would usually escape to lower temperatures down on the coast where they had more properties..
In winter when the icy winds came off the Sierra, and the streams in the garden sometimes glazed over, the house was freezing, the main form of heating being the "mesa de camilla", which is a table with a thick tablecloth down to the ground, and underneath a brass tray filled with hot coals. You sit round it, have the tablecloth up around your waist, so your legs are nice and cosy and the rest of you is still freezing! There is also a danger of dying from carbon monoxide posioning if the room is airtight.
This is the point at which I must tell you how I know all this - and a great deal more - about the Palacio de Mondragón. The last owner, Manuel Rodríguez Pulido y Fernández de la Reguera y Vázquez de Mondragón, was my uncle. Or rather, uncle-in-law.
I'm just glad I was never in charge of sewing on his nametapes when he was a boy. :-)
Written July 28, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
mike h
Queen Creek, AZ98 contributions
Jun 2019 • Couples
This is worth a quick visit when in Ronda. Romantic too! We really enjoyed walking through the palace, especailly liked the fountains.
Written July 7, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
adspharm
Oxford, UK243 contributions
Nov 2017 • Solo
In the Old City one of the finest buildings is the Mondragon palace, which was a Moorish palace but was modified in the Renaissance. It is situated close to the edge of the cliff with lovely gardens. But it is the content of this museum that is so striking. The main exhibition area has a big section covering local history from megalithic times through to the Romans and up to the 19th century. The next section deals with ethnography and the final section covers the local environment. The displays are magnificent and are some of the finest I have seen in a museum. The descriptions are quite detailed and are in English as well as Spanish. You will learn a lot from reading them. I just wish that the texts were available in a booklet - perhaps that will come in the future. You must not miss this museum! Close by is a splendid restaurant, El Morabito.
Written January 3, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
A Tripadvisor member
Pontault Combault, France
5 contributions
I DONT KNOW . I am in France. Sorry
Written January 1, 2018
Non, it is not very busy.
Written September 1, 2016
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