The Medrano Cellar

Phone: 926 523 234 / 926 52 23 93

Email: turismo@argamasilladealba.es

Website: www.ayto-argamasillade...

Location

Located in the centre of the town.

Type of monument

Civil Architecture

History

Traditionally considered the place where Cervantes began to write Quixote while he was a prisoner of the mayor of Medrano in the cellar. It was declared a Monument in 1972.

Art style

Renaissance.

The Casa de Medrano, was originally a Manchegan country house, a two storey building around a patio with various spaces distributed on the ground floor. A few years after its construction it suffered a fire that left it almost ruined, and an L-shaped, single story building was built over some of the remains.

Today’s house is only one storey high, with whitewashed walls and blue skirting boards, and doors that give on to the calle Cervantes.

Inside there is an ample corral and an enormous patio which serves as a “corral de comedias” (open air comedy theatre) when the “Cueva de Cervantes” Theatre Days take place in August.

From the patio you can access the cellar, a two storey basement, preserved almost intact, that served as a prison for Cervantes.

Following the restoration carried out in 1990, the house has been made into a Museum-House, which houses a Gregorio Prieto Gallery, with paintings on a Cervantine theme, as well as the Municipal Tourist Board Offices and an Auditorium.

Timetables

WINTER
Tuesday to Friday, 11ªm to 1:30pm and 5pm to 8pm. Saturdays, 11am to 1:30pm and 4pm to 7pm.
SUMMER
Tuesday to Saturday, 10:30am to 1:30pm and 5:30pm to 8:30pm.
Closed: Mondays (all day) and Sundays and Public Holidays (in the afternoons).

Fees

Entrance Free

Services

Guided tour. Tourist Information Office. Auditorium. Exhibition Hall. Museum. Library.