Alcalá de Henares

During the Early Modern age, the name of Alcalá de Henares became especially famous for its university, the only one able to compete for prestige with the University of Salamanca (photo). It was founded in 1499 by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. The most important political, religious and intellectual personalities of Spain at the time studied there, such as Francisco de Quevedo, Tirso de Molina, Francisco Suárez, Ignatius of Loyola, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Juan de Mariana, Juan Ginés de Sepulveda and Benito Arias Montano. Also, on 29 September 1547, Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the most famous work of Spanish Baroque literature, Don Quijote de la Mancha, was born in Alcalá.