Spain's Alcalá de Henares.
UNESCO Town and Birthplace of Cervantes, Creator of Don Quixote
May 3, 2007
Alcalá de Henares, is a quaint university town, well-known as the birthplace of Spain’s most famous author Miguel de Cervantes, creator of Don Quixote de la Mancha, the world´s most read book, after the Bible.
Spain’s equivalent to Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, sees thousands of people flocking here every year, turning a pleasant quiet town into a bustling tourist attraction.
Bus loads of pensioners and school children from Madrid and beyond come to queue for their viewing in the Cervantes Museum, where the author was born 460 years ago.
There are queues again to sit on a hard bench between the statues of the fat, squat Sancho Panza and the tall thin Don Quixote, and be photographed.
Period costume guides lead bored looking tourists around the town of 200,000 people, they occasionally stop mid-street to mime a theatrical presentation on Cervantes' works.
A statue of Cervantes reigns in the core of the Plaza de Cervantes, a fitting place for the most famous son of this age-old center of learning. Alcalá has for more than five centuries been a famous and important learning center. The university was founded in 1498 and it is today one of Europe´s most important academic institutions.
The university itself is a beautiful building, and the town was declared in 1998 a UNESCO world heritage site. One of the most glorious buildings is now rather unbelievably a student hall of residence.
There are other lodgers in the town, making massive messy nests in any possible location. Storks, which build nests the size of a small car, abound and are now considered the town´s symbol. They seem to prefer church buildings for their homes, and there are many.
Every year on April 23rd, the King of Spain presents the Cervantes Award for Literature in the university´s main hall, on the anniversary of the writers death, it´s one of the most prestigious awards for Spanish language works.
You can take a trip from Madrid´s Atocha station to Alcalá on the theme train Tren de Cervantes which runs Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays from end of March to June and third week of September to first week of December. This “golden age” trip includes costume staff and a selection of local gastronomy.
The train leaves Madrid around 11am and takes less than half an hour, the ticket includes a guided tour around Alcalá. You have day to explore this delightful town and the train leaves again around 7pm.
Visit Spain's Tourism page about Alcalá de Henares
