Alcalá de Henares
- Start for change! -
What to see in Alcala de Henares? Visit Alcala
in one day
Are you
coming to visit Alcala de Henares for the first time and you don’t know where
to start? Friends are coming and you need information to show them around the
town? This is a proposal for a tour that goes through the most important and
beautiful places in Alcalá. Are you interested?
What to see
in Alcala in just one day? It is not an easy task. Alcala may seem a small
city, but it has huge heritage and a long history. There are plenty of
beautiful places to visit, while it may be confusing to know what to visit when
you are coming to Alcalá for just one day. That is why we have designed this
tour, which goes over the most important buildings, charming streets and
ancients quares.
The walk
starts in the main college of the University and goes by
inside the historical old town. These two elements have been
included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Take into
account that this tour doesn’t include everything that there is to see in
Alcalá. If you have more time to spend in Alcalá, you should definitively try
some of the other routes that we
are designing.
In case you
are going to show the city around to other people, you may need to remember the
most important facts of the History of Alcalá. Read this post and
brag in front of your friends about how much you know.
Cervantes
Square
Cervantes Square is the former Market
square of Alcalá, where medieval people traded their products on market days.
The square was also used as a bullring during fairs and festivals.
It’s name comes from Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most important
icons of Alcalá. He
was born in Alcalá, in the old church of Santa María, whose
ruins are next to this square (Oidor Chapel and tower of Santa María). In the
center of the square, there is a sculpture of Cervantes.
Cervantes
Birthplace
Right in the middle of Calle Mayor is
Cervantes Birthplace. Its visit allows you to understand how was life like
during times of Miguel de Cervantes, and it’s free!
However, it is a must that youtake
a picture in the
bench in front of this house. This bench as a life-sise Sculpture of Sancho and Don Quijote (you
should know rho they are, in case you don’t click here).
I guess you have been walking all
morning and, by this time, you are hungry, aren’t you? This is the perfect time
to have a tapa
or a beer (maybe
a couple) in any of the bars that are around you. This post talks about the most famous, and also
our favorites, places to have a tapa.
College
of San Ildefonso
If we had to choose just one thing to
visit in Alcalá, most of us would choose the University.
Cardinal Cisneros founded in 1499,
and since then, it has been one of the most important institutions in Alcalá. Learn
more about it in this post.
College of San Ildefonso is a
building that is worth a visit, even though you have to pay 4 euros for a
guided visit, you’ll definitively love it.
The facade is gorgeous, and if you
come on a weekday you can visit the patios for free. Nevertheless, the only way
there is to visit Paraninfo or San Ildefonso’s Chapel is to pay for the visit.
Corral de
Comedias
This is an impressing building that
may be unnoticed from the outside, but that will amaze you on the inside.
It is one of the most ancient ‘Corral
de Comedias’ in Europe – an outdoor theatre set up in the inner patio of a
building.
It was about to be demolished, but
fortunately it has been restored instead and nowadays is being used for
theater, musical and ‘flamenco’ performances. Don’t missed it out!
From Cervantes Square, we get to ‘Calle
Mayor‘, the main street in the town center of Alcalá. In
addition, it is the longest street with ‘portico’ in Spain. It is a picturesque
street that was inside the Jewish neighborhood and nowadays has become the main
artery of the town center.
Santos
Niños Square
With a full stomach, it’s time to
visit the place where Justo y Pastor, who are known as‘Santos
Niños‘, are said to have been killeddefending
Christianity.
Because of that, these children were
considered saints. Years later, in the place where the assassination happened,
a chapel was build to keep their remains. This chapel was lately rebuilt as the
existing Cathedral Magistral of Santos Niños.
You may wonder why this cathedral has
the title
of Master, since there is only one other church in the world
with this name. This is because all his canons were graduated in the
Complutense University, all of them got the degree of ‘magister’.
We wish this tour has been helpful to
you and that you have an awesome day in Alcalá. Remember that this route is a
basic introduction to the main, but not every, beautiful places of Alcalá. Feel
free to take a picture of any patio, public building or street that you see
along your way. There
are lots of lovely secret spots hidden among the streets of Alcalá, don’t miss
them!!
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