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C/ Mayor, 48
28801 Alcalá de Henares
Tel.: 91 889 96 54
Fax: 91 881 87 52
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| The Museum |
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| The House |
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The house is situated in the old quarter of Alcalá de Henares.
It was Luis Astrana Marín, author of Vida ejemplar y heroica de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Madrid, 1948) who brought the house to public notice as the writer's birthplace. Thanks to his testimony, the Town Council of Alcalá de Henares purchased the property in 1954, with the purpose of creating a Cervantes museum there, and in the same year ceded the house to the then Ministry of National Education. The initial restoration work was carried out by the Directorate General of Fine Art.
The present museum, inaugurated in 1956 as the Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes, is the result of the renovation of the original property, work that also involved the creation of gardens at the front of the house as well as the substitution of the old entrance at Nº 2 calle de la Imagen for the one currently in use on calle Mayor.
In line with Royal Decree 680/1985 of 19 April, which devolved power and resources from the Central Government to the Autonomous Region of Madrid, with regard to cultural matters, responsibility for the Cervantes Birthplace Museum was transferred to the Autonomous Region of Madrid. The considerable number of visitors, averaging ten thousand visits monthly, confirmed a demand for further cultural options and activities. In response, a number of renovation and extension projects were then carried out to equip the museum with the necessary administrative, scientific and exhibition infrastructure.
Below is a summary of these projects, completed between 1997 and 2003.
- The addition of the adjacent two-storey property, first purchased by Alcalá de Henares Town Council and subsequently ceded to the Autonomous Region of Madrid, provided over two hundred square metres of new areas for cultural events and information:
- new rooms for the exhibition of documents
- a new multi-purpose room for activities, talks and educational workshops
- new office space
- a library
- a lift for the disabled
- The restoration and refurbishment of the original Birthplace Museum: coinciding with the extension work, the old cellar and access to it were renovated to house an audiovisual exhibition on the life of Cervantes. Air-conditioning has been installed, the roof has been reconditioned, the skylight over the courtyard has been replaced and the frescoes adorning Rodrigo de Cervantes' apothecary or dispensary have been restored.
- A multidisciplinary team has revised the permanent exhibition. All the rooms, which portray daily life in the times of Cervantes, have been adapted in keeping with the ambience of the Spanish Golden Age.
Visitors can also view a theatrical set with puppets, which retells the well-known episode of Master Pedro's Puppet Show (Don Quixote, Part II Ch. XXV and fol.)
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