Argamasilla de Alba is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

Province of Ciudad Real The province of Ciudad Real () is a province in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete, Jaén, Province of Córdoba (Spain), Córdoba, Province of Bada ...

, Castile-La Mancha,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It has a population of 6,791. According to local legend, ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

'' author

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

was held prisoner here, and refers to the municipality in the prologue of ''

'' Part I, making a joke about imprisonment"engendered in a jail"because the word "argamasilla" is Spanish for " mortar". The text talks about it as the place where Don Quixote is buried, and that the "Academicians of Argamasilla" meet at the gravesite. Contrary to the foundation of the joke, Argamasilla de Alba has never had a group of academicians working there, and modern Cervantes scholars believe this is a reference to his well-documented imprisonment in the Cárcel Real of

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

. José María Casasayas, founder of the Asociación de Cervantes, delivered a paper in 1999 in which he proposed that the town in Part I of the novel was Argamasilla de Alba, but in Part II, internal evidence suggests it was

Argamasilla de Calatrava Argamasilla de Calatrava is a municipality in the Province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Pl ...

, a confusion deliberately created by Cervantes. The town's tourist and cultural office is located in a rebuilt house, the "Casa de Medrano", which contains beneath the "Cave of Medrano", in which Cervantes' imprisonment allegedly took place. In the nineteenth century,

Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch (6 September 1806 – 2 August 1880) was a Spanish dramatist. He was the Director of the National Library of Spain until he retired in 1875. Biography Hartzenbusch was born in Madrid, Spain. His father was a German furni ...

had a printing press set up in the cave and printed there an edition of ''Don Quixote''. In keeping with the action of the novel's "Academicians of Argamasilla", the Asociación de Cervantistas held its annual meeting in Argamasilla de Alba in 1995, and returned for a meeting in 2005.''Perspectivas en los estudios cervantinos. (Homenaje a José María Casasayas).'' Ed. José Ramón Fernández de Cano y Martín. ''Cervantes'' 17.1 (1997): 4-180. Existen dos portadas, una con foto de Casasayas. En línea: .

Gallery

File:Argamasilla de Alba (512689709).jpg, Casa de Medrano, with signage ''Prision de Cervantes'' File:Casa de Medrano (Argamasilla de Alba).JPG, Interior of the Casa de Medrano File:Estatua de cervantes.JPG, Monument to Don Quixote, by

Cayetano Hilario Abellán Cayetano Hilario Abellán (born 21 May 1916 in Argamasilla de Alba, Spain – died 1997) was a Spanish self-taught sculptor who produced sculptures based on different themes. His work is known because of his group of characters from the Miguel d ...

. File:Molino en argamasilla.JPG, Windmill

References

Municipalities in the Province of Ciudad Real Miguel de Cervantes {{CastileLaMancha-geo-stub