A LITTLE HISTORY OF

ALCALÁ DE HENARES

1. INTRODUCTIONAlcalá de Henares is located 30 kilometres far away from Madrid , close to the motorway A-2.

Alcalá has actually been influenced by culture ad it also has a young atmosphere. Our city is also an important industrial region in the area close to the river Henares.

The city of Alcalá holds the title of “city” since the year 1687 and belongs to Madrid Community.

If you has been born in Alcalá de Henares you are called “Alcalaíno”

2. A JOURNEY TO COMPLUTUM

Spain was governed by the Romans since the 2nd century BC until 5th century AD.

Alcalá was called Complutum, comming from the term “compluvium”, place in which water is stored.

Romans built plenty of state monuments and some of them have been discovered years after.

Complutum connected Emerita Augusta (Mérida) with Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza)

3. MUSLIM ALCALÁ

In the year 711 AD muslims invaded the Peninsula.

In the middle of the 9th century muslims build a castle in Alcalá: Al-qualat-en Nahr “Castillo sobre el Henares”

This castle was quite close to the little church of Val’s neighborhood.

In the year 1118 muslim inluence finishes, but some people from this community would still be living in this area, creating beautiful works of art.

4. MEDIEVAL ALCALÁ

In the year 1129, the monarch Alfonso VII gave Alcalá’s land to the ToledoArchbishopric.

Alcalá became important and it was walled to protect itself as a city and also in order to protect commerce . We still have part of these wall remains.

Because of the enormous relevance of trading, a lot of jews lived in calle Mayor, which has plenty of arcades protecting their stalls.

5. RENAISSANCE IN ALCALÁ

Reinaissance in Alcalá starts in 1495 when Cisneros became archbishop of Toledo.

He started a very importan urban transformation: paving the streets and providing them with a sewage system.

The new grid plan and main squares were planified by the arquitect Pedro Gumiel.

Cisneros was considered the best major of Alcalá he also promoted the Multilingual Bible

6. BARROQUE ALCALÁ

Probably the best known personality of Alcalá is Miguel de Cervantes, writer of Don Quijote.

Although it was a period of crisis, from an economic point of view, in terms of culture it was a brilliant age.

Many theatres, like the typical “corrales de comedias” were build.

In Alcalá de Henares we count with a good example of this structure.

7. MODERN TIMES

Alcalá experimented a period of economic development during the 1960s.

University was restored, also mportant monuments and 1998 it was declared World Heritage Site.

We have also improved all the urban areas with publis services like schools, health centres and means of transport like Renfe Cercanias.

Some new residencial areas have been created once population has been increasing.