Esquivias

The present church was built on the site of the original church of Santa María de la Asunción, which existed until 1786, where Cervantes and Catalina were married and where Catalina's parents, among others, were buried. In 1785, construction of the present church began on the ruins of the former church, preserving the chancel, the tower and a baptismal font dating from 1686. In 1794, work was completed on the church, which was built according to neoclassical canons and the work of the German master Haan, a disciple of Sabatini. Although the building is neoclassical in style, the Mudejar Gothic of the tower was respected. The tower has a single body with arrow slit windows ending in a narrower body that houses a belfry with one eye per side. The exterior is of typical Toledan construction, with masonry and brickwork. The temple consists of a large square nave supported by four enormous columns of Colmenar stone and a quadrilateral chapel on its eastern side, where the main altar is located. The ceiling has 12 semicircular arches supported by nine handkerchief vaults. Unfortunately, the Renaissance altarpiece that presided over the main altar, before which Cervantes gave his marriage vows to Catalina, was lost.

Esquivias has preserved over time this illustrious mansion in which all the characteristics of the wealthy 16th century farmhouses have been kept intact. It is a typical two-storey house with a cobbled courtyard which is accessed through a doorway and which perfectly preserves the structure of the ceilings, with exposed beams, as well as the doors with the iron fittings and the window grilles. In 1971 it was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument. Subsequently, in 1990, the Ramón Areces Foundation granted the town council of Esquivias the necessary funds for the acquisition of the building, with the approval of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, which until then had been privately owned. In 1991 the restoration works began and finally the Cervantes House Museum was inaugurated on 12th December 1994, coinciding with the celebration of the anniversary of the marriage between Catalina de Palacios and Miguel de Cervantes. Every corner of the mansion makes us imagine what life was like for the people of the 16th century, the kitchens, the cupboards, the cobbled courtyards, the sewing room, the stable, the wine press, the wells, the mud walls and the cellar, where the enormous jars preserved the good wine that was made in Esquivias. The wine became very famous, as evidenced by a Royal decree of 1530, according to which Esquivias wine was reserved for the royal household, the Spanish nobility and for the sick and women in labour with a doctor's prescription. Like most of the old houses in Esquivias, Cervantes' house still conserves its cave, mainly used as a pantry where the wine is stored. The house belonged to the nobleman Don Alonso Quijada de Salazar, a member of the Quijadas family, wealthy landowners from Esquivia, as the coat of arms on the main façade shows. Several editions of Cervantes' immortal work, The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, translated into different languages, the oldest of which is a 17th century English edition, are on display in the museum's showcases. The exhibition also has several copies of documents from the 16th century belonging to the parish books that prove the existence of some characters from "Don Quixote", who lived in Esquivias at the same time that Cervantes was a resident of the place, as is the case of Diego Ricote, El bachiller Sansón Carrasco, El Vizcaíno, Juana Gutiérrez, Mari Gutiérrez and Teresa Cascajo, but in the famous book some corners of that house are also reflected, such as the window of the library through which the books expurgated from Don Quixote's library are thrown into the fire of the corral.

A two-storey mansion. The door and window openings on the ground floor have been extensively renovated, and only the central opening with period ironwork and the side doorway with stone surround and moulded cornice remain original. On the upper floor there is a large latticed balcony on iron braces and 3 other less prominent balconies with metal railings from different periods. Above the doorway is the coat of arms of the Salazar family flanked on both sides by the crosses of Malta and Santiago, the military orders to which the owners belonged.

It is a 16th century mansion with two floors, free-standing, consisting of the house, the corral, and old agricultural and livestock outbuildings. The ground floor has a large window with a wooden lintel beam and iron grille, on the sides there are smaller windows and we can see two doors, the access door on the right. On the upper part there are two latticed balconies and a wooden eaves with small, somewhat moulded, paired corbels. The house has a gable roof with arabic tiles and an attic.

It has an L-shaped floor plan and a height of two storeys. The main façade on the ground floor retains only the original doorway, the general frame, the cornice and the coat of arms. On the upper floor, the central balcony with a period iron railing has been preserved and the two side balconies were added later.

In the past there were two town halls in the square, one built in 1629 and the other, the present one, in 1798, which is the only one that remains. The town hall consists of an elongated ground plan with two floors. The central section has a colonnade with two free-standing Tuscan columns on dadoes and two semi-columns attached to the side sections. All four are made of white stone from Colmenar. The upper body with an open wooden runner, supported by five right corbelled feet.

It was built during the years 1719-1725 with financial contributions from the neighbours. The exterior is characterised by masonry and brick chains in the Toledan style. It was inhabited by monks of the Capuchin order, barefoot religious of the Franciscan order who wear a hooded habit. The Capuchin branch of the Franciscans was founded in the 16th century by Matteo di Bassi, with the aim of restoring the Franciscan rules to their original vigour and simplicity. Natural mummies belonging to the deceased monks who lived in the convent are still preserved in its crypt. There are five corpses in which the skin is still preserved, blackened and shrivelled, under which some tendons can be distinguished. The natural preservation of these bodies is due to the climate and the degree of humidity in that place, since it was tried to remove them from there and they started to decompose. In 1843, the transfer of the convent to the town council was formalised by order of the Junta Superior de Ventas de Bienes Nacionales, although according to the demarcation that accompanies the order itself, it was already being used as a boys' and girls' school. The convent was destroyed in 1936 during the Civil War and the "Old Schools" were built in the part of the convent that had been occupied by the monks' quarters. Also at this time, the convent church burnt down and was left half in ruins, just as we see it today. Since then, the church has only been partially used as a grain store in 1940. The rest of the complex has continued to be used as a school, which it was until a few years ago, and, sporadically, it has been used as a prison or barracks for the National Militia. Now, the area occupied by the old Sacristy has been converted into a Pensioners' Home and the chapels on the Gospel side were the Justice of the Peace until a few years ago.

It has a rectangular floor plan with a gabled roof. The only natural light penetrates through a semicircular side window to illuminate the room. It has a baroque altar in the Churrigueresque style, i.e. late baroque, characterised by overloaded decoration and twisted columns or Solomonic columns. In the centre of the altarpiece is San Roque.

Located in the Plaza Mayor. Carried out by order of King Charles IV in 1791 for the "benefit of public health". It was formerly used as a watering place for livestock. The water, which flows continuously through two pipes, comes from an underground conduction, which is brought from the outskirts of the village by means of pipes. It is neoclassical in style, as are two of the most important buildings in Esquivias after the Casa de Cervantes: the convent and the church. It has a semicircular floor plan and is attached to a house. It was built with large ashlars of white Colmenar stone. The front is crowned by a cornice with two ball pinnacles rising on either side.

It is an 18th century building in baroque style with three floors and a tower. The writer Azorín used to stay here during his stays in Esquivias. The windows have been refurbished on the ground floor, where they have been made smaller and the original grilles have been removed. On the first floor, separated by a fascia from the ground floor, there are balconies with sardinel lintels and vertically aligned with the openings on the ground floor. On the third floor there are small lintel windows. The tower has a square ground plan with windows centred on the sides and wooden eaves over the eaves. The facing is of stone with brick chains and brickwork on the ground floor and only brickwork on the rest of the floors. In recent years, the upper floor and the tower have been rendered unusable, and the window openings have been closed up.

Erected in February 1768 when this place was granted the privilege of Villa Real. It is located at the entrance of the village coming from Yeles. It does not end in a cross, as is usual. This type of construction is also known as a justice roll because those condemned to death were hung on it to set an example to others.

It was ordered to be built in the 16th century by the priest Juan de Palacios, uncle of Cervantes' wife. As a curiosity, we can say that the founder ordered that baked bread be given to the neighbours of Esquivias and that wheat in grain was not to be distributed because "it was badly priced". Popular style building with a rectangular ground plan on a corner. It has two heights, the second probably added at a later date. The ground floor with access and two lateral openings on the main façade and another on the smaller façade, all of them small, lintelled and regular. The upper floor has several openings that do not correspond to the lower ones, except for the balcony on the lower façade above the window. A small moulded cornice crowns the white plastered and rendered walls.

It is a singular work of modernist style made in honour of the two singular characters of "Don Quixote". It is inspired by a design by Julián Rodríguez Anaya and made by the craftsman Manuel González Torrejón in 1967 from different iron tools such as chains, axles or wheels and ironwork pieces.

Made by Juan de Ávalos in white stone, architect, sculptor, academician of Fine Arts and painter of long career, distinguished with numerous awards and author of a great number of monuments and sculptures such as the Monument to Liberty, the Constitution and Peace.

Installed in the Plaza de España, opposite the town hall, the monument is dedicated to the most universal Esquivian, Catalina de Palacios, who was the wife of Cervantes. It is a bust made in bronze, on a granite pedestal, by the sculptor Luis Martín de Vidales, from Toledo, in 1998.