Somewhere in Madrid…
This year the fourth centenary remembrance of the death of the most renowned Spanish writer. Miguel de Cervantes (the mind behind the famous Don Quixote) and the city of Madrid have a lot of things in common, some of which we are going to show you today. Today we guide you into the age of Cervantes and Don Quixote in Madrid, a unique opportunity to unify culture and tourism.
The convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians
Also known as the San Ildefonso and Saint Juan de Mata monastery, this baroque church’s temple was finished in 1698 and in 1752 the convent was built. In the year 1616 Miguel de Cervantes was buried and his remains lay in a monument of this temple located in the Barrio de las Letras.
Cervantes’ homes.
To visit the house where Cervantes lived his first years you will have to leave Madrid for a bit. Not very far away from the city, you will find Alcalá de Henares and its Calle Mayor, where the house-museum can be found. In addition to the possibility of seeing what a typical 16th Century Spanish home was like, you will get to know details of the writer’s life, and enjoy different exhibitions and expositions, and even theatrical representations and concerts.
Back in Madrid, you can go to the 2nd of Cervantes street (in El Barrio de las Letras), and see the commemorative plaque remembering the writer lived and died in that building (Although it’s not that building per se as it was demolished and rebuilt).
Monuments to Miguel De Cervantes
Madrid couldn’t be short of statues dedicated to Cervantes or the most immortal of his works, Don Quixote. In La Plaza de las Cortes you will discover the first dedicated sculpture erected in the city of Madrid. If you walk to Plaza de España, you will quite easily spot the extraordinary monument to Cervantes, accompanied by statues of Don Quixote’s characters (Aldonza Lorenzo, Dulcinea del Toboso, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza)
The author’s life
Up until the 22nd of May, the National Library holds the exhibit “Miguel de Cervantes: From life to myth”, a tour to get to know the person, the writer, the legend and of course his life’s work.