What Secrets Does Ronda's Mosque Hide Beneath Santa María Church?

In the heart of Ronda, Andalusia, a layered story lies hidden. When Christians conquered the city, they built the Santa María de la Encarnación church on the site of the former Friday mosque. Yet beneath the Baroque vaults remain the miʿrāb remains, the sacred niche where Muslim worshippers faced Mecca.
In the 16th century an altar with niches and frescoes was added, covering the delicate Islamic plasterwork. A century later a new Baroque altar replaced the older one. Only at the beginning of the 20th century, during work to create new burial spaces, workers uncovered parts of the original walls: plaster decorated with geometric and calligraphic motifs typical of Islamic art.
Today scholars have studied these fragments, reconstructing the original layout of the miʿrāb and the qibla wall. They propose preserving the remains with consolidation treatments, creating multimedia routes that show, in augmented reality, how the mosque looked before the transformation, and installing informative panels that tell the story of cultural coexistence. The goal is to valorise this heritage without damaging the 17th‑century Baroque altar, offering visitors a tour that blends Christian and Islamic art in a single historical narrative.

The analyses of Ronda's miʿrāb remains employed non‑invasive techniques such as 3D photogrammetry and infrared spectroscopy to identify plaster binders. Results reveal the use of high‑quality gypsum mixed with local sand, typical of Mudéjar decorations of the al‑Andalus period. Geometric motifs, including eight‑pointed stars and interlaced nets, belong to the 12th‑13th century Andalusian epigraphic style, suggesting a possible dating prior to the Christian conquest. Pigment analysis also detected lapis lazuli for blue details, indicating a high economic investment in the original mosque. For conservation, experts recommend applying calcium silicate consolidants compatible with the gypsum substrate and installing micro‑climatic barriers to limit humidity and salt action. For valorisation, an augmented‑reality route is proposed, allowing tablets or smartphones to virtually reconstruct the mosque's original plan, including the qibla orientation, original decorations, and interactions between Christian and Islamic spaces. This approach preserves the physical integrity of the 17th‑century Baroque altar while making the site's historical layering visible to the public.