Alcalá de Henares

Alcalá de Henares, in the early 16th century, was the first city in the world to be designed and built solely as the seat of a university.


Year Decision Comments
1998 Inscribed Reasons for inscription

Reviews

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We travelled out to Alcala de Henares from Madrid by train. Althought it has its origins back in Roman times, it is now a lively university town with lots of your people around the place, and lots of outdoor spaces in which to sit and contemplate the fine architecture.

As a bonus you can visit Cervantes' birthplace and immerse yourself in his books and life.
 
Frederik Dawson (Netherlands):
Alcala de Henares, a small town near Madrid, is a home of Spain’s most prestigious university and the birthplace of great Spanish novelist, Miguel de Cervantes, so this city breathes with two things – university and Don Quijote.

As the first planned University town in the world, Alcala de Henares is another example of city planning on the World Heritage List; however, this special characteristic is less obvious as I think this town is just a typical Spanish town in term of urban layout. The prime attraction of the town is university (for sure) which is situated in the town centre area. Strolling around this large and beautifully constructed in Spanish renaissance style university complex is a very nice experience. The must see is the amazingly Paraninfa Hall where the Spanish monarchs give out annual Cervantes Award to outstanding writer.

Alcala de Henares was a prosperous town, in the historic precinct, which is just next to the university, has many nice and attractive balconied buildings and churches. The large city square with a statue of Cervantes is a really surprised as it gave an Italy reminiscent to me. The main reason for most tourists who come to this city is Cervantes Museum which is located on the site believed to be his birth place. The museum is OK with many objects from Cervantes period or the scene from his novels. The most disappointed from this museum is no one can speak English, but it is a free museum so I didn’t expect much for language service. In front of the museum is a statue of Don Quijote and his partner, Sancho Panza with a long queue of tourists who want to sit between them for a good photo opportunity.

Alcala de Henares seems to be a quite popular place for Spanish tourists with considerably amount of restaurants and souvenir shops; I hardly heard any foreign languages except Spanish. I think the town has a horse riding school, as I saw many students rode their horses to the city centre making the town’s atmosphere more memorable with the old time charm. I even saw one guy withdrew some money from ATM while he was sitting on the horse! What’s a combination of old and new worlds!

This town is a true jewel of Comunidad de Madrid and should get more attentions from foreign tourists even though I afraid the charm of the town will lose forever with the influx of tourists like other WHS. From Madrid, there have many frequent suburban trains connect Madrid with Alcala de Henares in just less 50 minutes.
Date posted: September 2006
Florencio Moreno-Anega (Spain):
Same than Cáceres this WHS is special to me as I live here. Therefore I had to be fond of WHS as I was born in one and live in another one...
Alcalá de Henares is a nice town, with a long history and a fabulous old University building. It's a universitary town therefore you see here a lot of students from many places of Spain and the whole world.
It's only half an hour from Madrid so perfect for a day tour.
Date posted: May 2006
Eric Greene (United States):
I lived in Alcala for 2 months in the summer of 2004. The people are amazing, the city is beautiful and so much fun. It almost makes me cry to write this I miss it so badly.
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Date posted: July 2005
guillermo (spain):
Hi, I am living already in Manchester, UK, but i was born and lived in Alcala de Henares all my life. I would just like to tell you how beautiful this place is. We spanish people are really friendly and are always happy to welcome visitors who respect our place. I hope you come to madrid, that is at 20 miles from alcala, and enjoy my city even for only one day. Spring is marvellous and the city looks amazing!!!. I am a tourism management student and i have been in many places, but nothing can compare to Alcala!!!
Hope you come and visit!!!
 


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