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Hotel Reina Victoria
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A little to the south of the Alameda, and connected
to it by the cliff top Paseo de los Ingleses is another garden,
in the centre of which stands the Hotel Reina Victoria. The references
to Queen Victoria and the English are not accidental or the casual
whim of the hotel's builders. In its heyday it was much used by
high ranking British officers stationed in Gibraltar. The building
of the hotel, and its regular use by the British, were both made
possible by the arrival of the railway in Ronda in 1891. Before
that, the journey from Gibraltar to Ronda was a difficult and dangerous
one along a road that was in reality no more than a dirt track.
Indeed, that was the case until comparatively recently. Whereas
it is now possible to drive from the coast to Ronda in a couple
of hours, the journey in the days when Victoria reigned over an
Empire on which the sun never set was long, tiring, tedious, and
probably possible only on horseback.
Things became much easier with the completion of
the railway. Before long, a typical weekend for off-duty British
officers would start with a ferry crossing from Gibraltar
to Algeciras
on Friday and a night at the Reina Victoria's sister hotel in that
town, the Christina. On Saturday morning they would ride the train
to Ronda, spend Saturday night at the Reina Victoria, and retrace
their steps on Sunday afternoon to be back on duty by Monday morning.
A fine way to spend the weekend, but still a long way to go. Did
the Hotel Reina Victoria provide more than an impressive view of
the gorge to its distinguished military guests so far from home?
There may be a clue in the fact that four other hotels catering
for a very similar clientele were built in the same year as the
Reina Victoria (1909). None had the quality and prestige of their
distinguished rival, and all four, the Royal, the Polo, the Del
Comercio and the significantly named Gibraltar, are now gone. The
four star Reina Victoria was temporarily stripped of its royal title
in the early days of the Civil War, but is now restored to its former
glory.
GPS Location: 36º 44' 50"N 5º 10' 10"W View on Google Maps
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