- Bandolero — a highway robber, usually on horseback, working the roads of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The English word “bandit” is close enough.
- Niños de Ecija — a gang on the Seville–Cordoba road between about 1814 and 1818. They were not all children, not always seven, and not all from Ecija.
- Migueletes — armed patrols used against bandits before the Civil Guard was created in 1844. After his pardon, El Tempranillo briefly rode with a similar squadron.
Bandits on the Andalusian roads — Tempranillo, Ronda and the old passes
European writers liked the Andalusian bandit. On the ground he was a man with a gun on a bad road. Coaches crossing the Campiña between Seville and Cordoba, or the hills toward Ronda and Gibraltar, were held up by people who knew every track. They changed horses according to the ground: a fast animal on the plain if a patrol was coming, a sure-footed one if the escape was up a slope. After 1844 the Civil Guard made that life harder. The last well-known figure, Pasos Largos, was shot in 1934 in the Sierra de las Nieves.
The stories and the hold-ups both happened. Villages still tell the kind version more often than the court record. This page covers the names you will meet and the places you can still visit. It is not a list of every gorge in Andalusia. The collection that used to sit in Ronda is now in El Borge, in the Axarquia. El Tempranillo’s own village, Jauja, near Lucena, keeps a centre on the same subject. Related pages: Ronda, the old smuggling roads and Sierra Morena.
*The Bandit Museum that opened in Ronda in 1995 closed in 2020. The collection is in El Borge. Check opening hours before a detour to Jauja or El Borge.
Words you will meet
The names that stuck
Diego Corrientes (1757–1781) worked the farms and roads around Utrera and Seville. Later stories turned him into a man who robbed the rich and helped the poor. What can be checked is the end: he was caught in Portugal, hanged in Seville, and his body was cut up and sent to the provinces where he had ridden.
Jose Ulloa, called El Tragabuches, was a Ronda bullfighter who killed his wife’s lover and then his wife, and took to the hills. Legend puts him with the Niños de Ecija. What can be placed on a map is Ronda and Arcos. In town he is a story attached to the gorge, not a figure with a thick court file.
The Niños de Ecija themselves controlled the main road between Seville and Cordoba for a few years after the war against Napoleon. Some of them had begun as irregular fighters. By 1818 the group had been broken up and several of its members were executed.
Jose Maria Hinojosa Cobacho, El Tempranillo, was not their leader. He was born in 1805 in Jauja, a hamlet of Lucena, went into the sierra as a teenager after a killing at a pilgrimage, and became the name foreigners heard. He stopped coaches in daylight on the roads between Lucena, Estepa, Loja and the Serrania de Ronda. In 1832 Ferdinand VII pardoned him and put him at the head of a small mounted force to hunt the men who had not come in. In September 1833 another bandit, El Barberillo, shot him near Alameda, in Malaga province. He died the next day, aged twenty-eight, and is buried there.
Juan Caballero, El Lero, rode in the same years and took the same pardon. He lived on in Estepa and died there in 1895 of an infection — a quieter end than the ballads allow. Pasos Largos, whose name was Juan Quero, is the last figure people still point to. He held out in the Sierra de las Nieves until the Civil Guard killed him in 1934. After that, organised hold-ups on these roads more or less came to an end.
Where to go
Start with a museum if you want the story in one room. El Borge, inland from the Axarquia, holds the old Ronda collection: wanted notices, clothes, guns, and the travellers who wrote the bandits up. Jauja, on the Cordoba side, has the Centro Tematico del Bandolerismo Romantico and sits on a marked “lands of Tempranillo” route. Alameda, just inside Malaga province, is where he died; the parish still records the burial.
Ronda is still the landscape that makes the stories intelligible: the gorge, the old road off the plain, the hills toward Grazalema and the Sierra de las Nieves. Tragabuches belongs to that town in popular memory. Do not plan on a bandit museum inside Ronda itself. Utrera and Ecija are the Campiña towns on the Seville–Cordoba road the Niños used. Estepa is El Lero’s town and a halt on Tempranillo’s ground.
Jimena de la Frontera, Arcos and Medina Sidonia sit on the Cadiz side of the same hill country, toward the cork woods of Los Alcornocales and the old frontier with Gibraltar. That country was used for smuggling as well as for hold-ups. Despeñaperros, the pass through Sierra Morena from La Mancha, was the gate into Andalusia for coaches coming south. Grazalema and the Spanish-fir woods are where a rider could disappear. None of these parks exists because of bandits. They are simply the ground the old roads had to cross.
- El Borge, Axarquia — former Ronda bandit collection
- Jauja (Lucena) — Centro Tematico del Bandolerismo Romantico
- Alameda — burial of El Tempranillo
- Ronda — Puente Nuevo
- Jimena Castle — map
- Los Alcornocales — map
- Arcos Castle — map
- Medina Sidonia castle — map
- Despeñaperros — map
- Grazalema Natural Park — map
- Sierra de las Nieves — map
How to follow the route from Malaga
El Borge is the closest museum from the Costa del Sol: inland from Velez-Malaga, a morning by car. Ronda is the day most visitors already plan. Jauja and Alameda sit on the Lucena–Antequera side of the A-92; they fit a drive toward Cordoba or Estepa, not a side trip from Granada. A hire car is the practical way to link the hamlets. A private transfer can take you to a hotel in Ronda or Antequera; from there you still need a car for Jauja and Alameda.
Car hire: the flexible option
From Malaga Airport, El Borge is a side road in the Axarquia. Ronda is a full day in the mountains. Jauja and Alameda sit between Lucena and Antequera. Leave all three for separate outings.
Car hire Malaga airport
Taxi or private transfer
From Malaga Airport or your Costa del Sol hotel to Ronda, Antequera or Velez-Malaga. El Borge works as a half-day trip from the eastern Costa. Jauja is too far for a short taxi ride from the beach.
Airport transfer*No credit-card details or advance payment are needed to request a quote. Cancellation is free. Book ahead in high season to avoid price rises and to secure the car or group size you need.
Other options
Buses run from Malaga to Ronda, Antequera and Velez-Malaga. El Borge has a local service from the Axarquia; check the return time before you go. Jauja is a hamlet of Lucena: take a train or bus to Lucena, then a local connection or a taxi. Alameda lies on the road between Antequera and Estepa and has only a few buses.
Despeñaperros is on the main road and railway north of Jaen. It is not a day trip from the Costa del Sol. Grazalema and Jimena are easier from Ronda than from Malaga if you are using buses. From Fuengirola, Torremolinos or Marbella, go into Malaga for the long-distance services, or drive.
Practical tips
- Do not go to Ronda looking for the old Bandit Museum. That collection is in El Borge.
- Jauja is the place for El Tempranillo. Alameda is where he died. They are close by car, not by train.
- Ronda is still worth the day for the gorge and the roads that gave the stories their setting.
- The Niños de Ecija belong to the Seville–Cordoba road, not to the Costa del Sol.
- These were hold-ups, not folk dances. The museums show the papers and the guns; the ballads do the rest.
Frequently asked questions about Andalusian bandits
Is the Bandit Museum still in Ronda?
No. It closed in 2020. The collection moved to El Borge, in the Axarquia of Malaga province.
Was El Tempranillo the leader of the Niños de Ecija?
No. The Niños worked the Seville–Cordoba road around 1814–1818. El Tempranillo was born in 1805 in Jauja and was killed in 1833 near Alameda, a year after a royal pardon.
Did they really steal from the rich to give to the poor?
That is the ballad version, especially around Diego Corrientes. They robbed coaches and farms. Some travellers paid a fee to pass unharmed. Kindness in the stories is not the same as a system for helping the poor.
Where should I go from the Costa del Sol?
Go to El Borge for the museum, to Ronda for the hills that frame the stories, and to Jauja and Alameda if you want El Tempranillo on his own ground.
Is this the same as the smuggling route?
No. The smuggling route ran from Gibraltar with tobacco and cloth. Bandits held up the inland roads. The same hills were useful to both, but they are two different stories and two different pages.
Who was the last bandit?
Pasos Largos, in the Sierra de las Nieves, killed by the Civil Guard in 1934. After that, organised hold-ups on these roads more or less came to an end.
