Alcala holds tightly to its son Cervantes

March 07, 2004|Meghan Meyer, Globe Correspondent

ALCALA DE HENARES, Spain -- Just a half-hour outside tourist magnet Madrid, this tiny university town escapes the notice of most international visitors. This is a shame because as the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, the city holds an important place in Spanish history.

Cervantes (1547-1616), author of "Don Quixote" and the most important figure in Spanish literature, left Alcala as a child but the town never quite let go of him. Every year, the University of Alcala hosts the Premio Cervantes awards ceremony, a kind of Nobel Prize for literature written in Spanish. Tourists can visit the ornate hall that houses the ceremony, with a university guide. In Alcala, Cervantes's masterpiece and the era that produced it remain very much alive. Near the Casa Natal de Miguel de Cervantes, a museum purported to be on the site of his birthplace, is a women's clothing store with the chicly lower-case name "cervantes." You will also find a restaurant named for Rocinante, the Man of La Mancha's noble steed, and another named for Dulcinea, his champion and lady love.

The devotion to Cervantes does not sink to the Hemingway-fueled kitsch that infests Key West. T-shirt shops are conspicuously absent, and a quest to find a souvenir statue of the famed knight could indeed prove quixotic.

For those truly enamored of all things Quixote, however, a Cervantes Train staffed by actors in period costume leaves the Atocha Station in Madrid on some weekends. The actors perform skits and serve pastries during the trip to Alcala, and the ticket (about $18) includes a guided tour of the city's historic buildings.

The buildings in Alcala's historic district have changed little since Cervantes's day. This led the United Nations in 1998 to name the city, the first in the world designed specifically to house a university, a World Heritage site. After the honor, tourism spiked. Still, this pleasant place remains off the beaten path for most visitors. Spending a quiet day wandering the streets is a good way to soak up Spanish culture without being accosted by the postcard and bootleg-CD salesmen who line the streets of the capital. Historic Alcala revolves around the Plaza de Cervantes, a square near the university, and the 15th-century Calle Mayor, reportedly the longest porticoed street in Spain. Cafes serving scrumptious "menus del dia" (daily menus) -- reasonably priced three-course meals that Spaniards typically spend hours eating during lunchtime -- line the plaza and the Calle Mayor.

Bars in Alcala are tamer than the ones in Spain's large cities, and they cater to a college crowd. One tavern called Moe's features life-sized cutouts of Simpsons characters. At a bar called Frog's, thirsty students can order a bucket of sangria. The bars in Alcala are much like their counterparts in the United States: Just replace the ubiquitous American pitcher of beer with a plastic pail of fruit-flavored punch, and provide enough bendy straws for six people to share.