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Alcázar de San Juan is a small but beautiful municipality located in Ciudad Real. It has a vast history and various places of interest, some of them related to the figure of the great writer Miguel de Cervantes. This makes the city impregnated with the Cervantes presence. Is it worth visiting? Of course!
Cervantes and Alcazar de San Juan
Alcázar de San Juan and Alcalá de Henares compete for being the birthplace of Cervantes after a baptism certificate of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was found in 1748 in the church of Santa María la Mayor.
The visit to Alcázar de San Juan is full of tourist attractions such as the streets of the historic center that lead to the Plaza de Santa María, where there is a statue dedicated to Miguel de Cervantes.
In the church of Santa María you can see the baptismal font where the very author of Don Quixote de la Mancha could have been baptized.
Precisely, one of the most photographed places in Alcázar de San Juan is the sculpture erected to the main characters of the novel: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. It was placed here since 1971.
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What to see?
Church of the Santa María la Mayor,
It was built on the remains of an old mosque and mixes varied architectural styles, including the Visigoth remains on its walls, the Romanesque apse and a Mudejar chapel. It was declared a monument in 1990.
Inn of Santo Domingo
The Posada de Santo Domingo is a complex made up of a XNUMXth century noble house and an attached hermitage. Currently the building contains the Municipal Museum, which houses the pictorial collection and the permanent exhibition of archeology of the town. Among his most outstanding works are the Roman mosaics of the XNUMXnd and XNUMXth centuries AD
Palace of the Grand Prior
The most striking feature of the palace complex is the Torreón del Gran Prior, a XNUMXth-century Almohad tower. Its architectural style combines the Gothic style with the Renaissance. As with other monuments, the palace chapel also suffered the destruction of the Civil War and lost its many artistic altarpieces in the Plateresque, Baroque and Churrigueresque styles.
Windmills
On the hill of San Antón there are four seventeenth-century windmills in very good condition that were used in the past to grind grain. Formerly there were 19 windmills and two water mills in Alcázar de San Juan but today only these four remain, of which two can be visited.
On the other hand, if you wait on the hill of San Antón until nightfall you will be able to observe the sky in all its splendor.
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Town hall
It is a neoclassical building from the XNUMXth century in which the Principal Casino was located. It consists of two floors decorated with triangle-shaped windows. Its decoration together with its coffered ceilings, the staircase and the plenary hall is what stands out the most about this place. Not forgetting the central balcony with a mosaic representing the Sacred Heart.
Museum of the Hidalgo
This museum is located in an old XNUMXth century manor house: the Casa del Rey. This place shows how those noblemen who Cervantes was inspired for his novel were like and how they lived. Through audiovisual and interactive objects and resources the visitor will discover what daily life was like in these houses, how they dressed and even how the people of that time spent time in Alcázar de San Juan.
Convento de Santa Clara
Declared a historical-artistic monument of provincial interest in 1982, the Santa Clara Convent is currently a hotel establishment where you can taste the Camacho Wedding stew.