Logbook · 9 places

Cave of Medrano

Argamasilla de Alba, La Mancha, Ciudad Real

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 3 Nature · 2 Curiosities · 1 Food and drink

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Cave of Medrano

Nature · Argamasilla de Alba, La Mancha, Ciudad Real

Cellar of the old house of the Medrano family, where tradition places Miguel de Cervantes's confinement and the writing of the first pages of the Quixote. It is the most visited site in Argamasilla de Alba. Also known as the cueva del Alcalde-Medrano, it was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (an earlier heritage-protection category, now incorporated into that of Bien de Interés Cultural) on 26 October 1972, and today holds the rating of Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection). According to legend, Cervantes was held locked up there for four months by order of the marquis Rodrigo de Pacheco, a hypothesis historians consider discounted, since no documentary evidence exists to support it; the claim already appears recorded in 1826 in Sebastián Miñano's Diccionario geográfico de España y Portugal.

Photo: Dilema (CC BY 3.0)

What to see and do in Argamasilla de Alba