ALCALÁ DE HENARES , a little over 30km from Madrid, is one of Europe's most ancient university towns, and renowned as the birthplace of Miguel de
Cervantes . In the sixteenth century the university was a rival to Salamanca's, but in 1836 the faculties moved to Madrid and the town went into decline. Almost all the artistic heritage was lost in the Civil War and nowadays it's virtually a suburb of Madrid. It is not somewhere you'd want to stay longer than it takes to see the sights, but that's no problem with regular trains (Chamartín or Atocha; every 15-30min from 5.30am-11.45pm) and buses (every 15min, operated by Continental Auto) from Madrid throughout the day. If you like everything organized for you, the
Tren de Cervantes leaves Atocha at 11am on Saturday and Sunday (May, June & Oct-Dec; ¬13.20; tel 915 066 356 or 915 067 103) complete with staff wearing period costume and includes a guided tour of the main sites, before returning to Madrid at 7pm.
The Universidad Antigua (45-minute guided tours Mon-Fri 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm, 4.30pm & 5.30pm, Sat, Sun & holidays 11am-2pm & 5-8pm; ¬2.10) stands at the heart of the old town in Plaza de San Diego. It was endowed by Cardinal Cisneros (also known as Cardinal Jiménez) at the beginning of the sixteenth century and features a fabulous Plateresque facade and a Great Hall, the Paraninfo (entered through the Hostería del Estudiante , an expensive restaurant at the back), with a gloriously decorated Mudéjar artesonado ceiling. Next door, the Capilla de San Ildefonso has another superb ceiling, intricately stuccoed walls, and the Italian marble tomb of Cardinal Cisneros.
The Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes at c/Imagen 2 (Tues-Sun 10.15am-1.30pm & 4-6.15pm; free) claims to be the birthplace of Cervantes in 1547: though the house itself is hardly thirty years old, it's authentic in style, furnished with genuine sixteenth-century objects, and contains a small museum with a few early editions of Don Quixote and other curiosities related to the author.
To the west of the university, the Monasterio de San Bernardo , Via Complutense (guided tours Mon-Fri 1.45pm & 6.30pm, Sat & Sun 12.30pm, 1.30pm, 5pm, 5.45pm, 6.30pm, 7.15pm & 8pm; ¬2.10), was founded by the Cistercians in 1617 and has recently opened its doors as a museum of religious art, re-creating the atmosphere of a monastery of that era, complete with cells and kitchen.
Just off the central Plaza Cervantes is the oldest surviving public theatre in Europe, the Cervantes Theatre , whose twenty-year restoration is nearing completion, although dispute continues over the theatre's future use. Discovered beneath a crumbling old cinema by two drama students in 1980, the theatre, like Shakespeare's Globe, was a hub of rowdy heckling and lively dramatics throughout the first half of the seventeenth century.
The local turismo (daily: summer 10am-2pm & 5-7.30pm, closed Mon in July & Sept; winter 10am-2pm & 5-6.30pm; tel 918 892 694, alcalaturismo.com ), just off the central Plaza de Cervantes, can arrange guided tours for ¬4.50-5, has maps and other handy information, and from here nothing of interest is more than a short walk away. There is another office in Plaza de los Santos Niños (same hours, but closed Tues in July & Aug; tel 918 810 634). You'll find no shortage of places to eat centrally and, if you want to stay , there are several pensiones on the Plaza de Cervantes itself as well as the Hostal Jacinto (tel & fax 918 891 432; ¬36-48), conveniently located by the train station.
