Castles like stone labyrinths perched on the mountains, charming medieval town, the skylines of towering windmills on the horizon. Looking for Don Quixote de la Mancha between some of the most magical spots of Spain is not just a literary route, because this is not only one of the most famous novels in the history of literature and the most translated book after the Bible. It’s a journey in the 17th century, the Golden Age of Spanish literature, on the steps of adventures and misfortunes of the "Knight of the Sad Countenance" who could not distinguish fantasy from reality and wanted to be a knight-errant through La Mancha. The novel, written by Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish Shakespeare, tells Don Quixote’s fabulous quest to revive the age of chivalry by taking to the road as a knight in search of challenges for bridesmaids to be saved and rights to defend. Unfortunately he’s doing this in 16th-century, too late, with a barber’s bowl for a helmet and a nag for a steed, mistaking windmills for giants and flocks of sheep for armies. The sad result for this wonderful loser is that everyone thinks he’s mad, unlike his squire Sancho Panza, mainly concerned by doubloons, food and a bed for the night. Don Quixote has been also the subject of many movies including the last, “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”, a 2018 adventure-comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam, widely recognized as one of the most infamous examples of development hell in film history, “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”, a 2018 adventure-comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam, widely recognized as one of the most infamous examples of development hell in film history, with Gilliam unsuccessfully attempting to make the film many times over the span of twenty-nine years.
The gateway to the unchanging flatlands of La Mancha, where Quixote’s adventures were set, is Consuegra with its mills, some of the best preserved in Spain, on a rocky ridge near the ruins of a medieval castle. Few kilometres away there is another "land of giants", the windmills of Campo de Criptana which for the locals are the ones that truly inspired Cervantes. El Toboso, the village where lived the eternal love of Don Quixote, Dulcinea del Toboso “the fairest woman in the world”, exists and includes the Dulcinea House-Museum, a typical 17th century large house from La Mancha. Many towns and villages of La Mancha proclaimed themselves the homeland of Don Quixote but according to the most recent researches the honor goes to Villanueva de los Infantes. The mood of this Spanish soul is still alive in one of the most charming towns of Spain, Almagro with its beautiful square, the Plaza Mayor with the fascinating Corral de Comedias, an open air thatre dating back to the 17th century. The world of chivalry from which Quixote sprang revives also in the imposing Gothic castle-convent of Calatrava la Nueva with three walled enclosures and the theatrical Gothic-style rose window of the church.