El Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes

La Casa Natal de Cervantes is the house where Miguel de Cervantes, the author of El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, was born. I visited it today as I was leaving Madrid for Daimiel, the small village where I'll be spending the next six nights. Tomorrow, I start visiting the sites where don Quixote is said to have visited.


Cervantes' family was wealthy: Rodrigo Cervantes, the famed author's father, was a successful 16th century surgeon. (Ironically, Miguel died in jail while serving time for tax evasion). Accordingly, the Cervantes household was unusually large for its time, and it took me a lot longer than I thought it would to walk through the entire house and take pictures.

This is where Rodrigo Cervantes did his surgical work:

The house even had its own puppet house:

There were also some reproductions of Cervantes' works, including Don Quixote, scattered throughout the house. I also saw many translated versions of his works (pics and footage below).

I also walked around Alcala de Henares, the suburb of Madrid where the house is located. There are statues and paintings of Quixote all over Spain, but they were particularly concentrated in Alcala de Henares.

Windmills:

Sancho Panza, Quixote's Squire:

 Don Quixote:

Quixote and crew

Ultimately, visiting the house was an interesting experience and was a good way to transition from spending a day in Madrid acclimating to focusing more on don Quixote and Miguel de Cervantes. I'm looking forward to vising the sites where Quixote supposedly passed through tomorrow.