Alcala de Henares

Cardinal Cisneros founded a university here in 1499 and laid out a town around it, the first place designed from the start as a university city, a model exported to Spanish America; UNESCO listed it in 1998 on that basis. The Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso has a plateresque facade of 1543 and a hall where the Cervantes Prize is awarded each April by the king. Cervantes was born in Alcala in 1547, and a reconstructed house on Calle Mayor operates as a museum with bronzes of Don Quixote and Sancho on a bench outside. Calle Mayor itself is the longest arcaded street in Spain, and the town keeps a large stork population nesting on its towers.

What you actually see

• The San Ildefonso facade - a plateresque front of 1543 on the old college.
• The Cervantes house - a reconstructed birthplace museum on Calle Mayor.
• The arcaded street - Spain's longest colonnaded thoroughfare.
• The storks - large nests on the towers throughout the town.

When to go

April to June and September to November; the Cervantes Prize is awarded on 23 April and the town holds a book week around it, with a large medieval market in October. Summer on the Madrid plain is very hot.

Honest expectations

The Cervantes house is a reconstruction rather than the original building, which disappoints some. University interiors are seen only on guided tours at set times. The town is a commuter suburb outside the historic core.

Nearby

Madrid is thirty-five kilometres west; Guadalajara lies further east.