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Cervantes Week

Alcalá de Henares, Cuenca del Henares, Madrid

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Cervantes Week

Activity · Alcalá de Henares, Cuenca del Henares, Madrid

Declared a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest (Spain's national tourism-interest designation) in 2018, the Semana Cervantina of Alcalá de Henares is held in October, coinciding with the anniversary of Cervantes' baptism on 9 October 1547 in the old church of Santa María, with more than five hundred activities set in the Golden Age: a civic parade, public reading of Don Quixote, concerts, exhibitions and the Ciudad de Alcalá Awards. Its most popular activity is the Mercado Cervantino, begun in 1998, which sets more than two kilometres of the historic quarter with street parades, old trades and around four hundred stalls, and is considered the largest of its kind in Europe. In September 2026 the festival achieved recognition as a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest (Spain's highest tourism-interest designation).

Photo: Raimundo Pastor (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What to see and do in Alcalá de Henares