Hola!
Hello!
Merhaba!
On the second day of the course, we met in front of Cervantes Statue at the Plaza de Cervantes and as a group we took photos. We had a cute guide helping us and he told lots of things about the history of Alcala de Henares. We learned that the history of the city goes back to Neolithic Times. During Roman Times; Complutum, as Alcalá
was called in this time, is a name that it’s believed that it came from
‘compluvium’, a latin word which means ‘place where water converge’ since there
are many streams meeting in here: Camarmilla and Torote merge with River
Henares.
He was the only person speaking English in SPAIN :)))
History of Alcala from the
nineteenth century to the present
The Nineteenth century is a time of disasters. There was the Peninsular War
(1808-1814), Ecclesiastical Confiscations and the Complutense University
moved to Madrid because a lack of students. Every building ever belonging
to the university changed its activity, serving as barracks or other military
uses.
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a disaster for cultural artistic
goods and treasures of Alcalá. These disastrous consequences lasted until the
70s, when the industrialization of Spain and Alcalá started. It brought money
to the inhabitants of Alcalá, and it brought back social life and urban
development.
Luckily a new law was made just in time to protect the most important urban
heritages of Alcalá (but not all), and so the city center wasn’t demolish to
build new ugly housing.
The XXth century brings a new growing touristic interest in Alcalá. It has
brought back the University (even though it is not the University Complutense
anymore but the University of Alcalá) and the old confiscated buildings
have been reoccupied and restored.
The college environment that was lost for a long time but that has always
been the spirit of Alcalá has been reemerging.
Do you want to learn more things about Alcala de
Henares? In this link below I have
more about the History of Alcala.
After we have listened the history of the city, we walked towards the street on which you can see the first Alcala University. It was magestic! Everywhere is green and you can really smell the history inside it.
During the sighseeing our next visit station is CERVANTES' HOUSE which is very popular here and a must see place. You can see and smell history there and try to guess that century and the life of people living at that time. As we were a large group, we entered the house in groups. Of course, we had lots of pictures there, too.
 |
| In front of the house |
 |
| His father's study room, he was a MEDICO :) |
 |
| One of the pages from his book: DON QUIJOTE |
After the sigtseeing with our tour guide we decided to go to TOLEDO which is the second famous place near Madrid. Everybody who came Madrid should see this city because it is another historical and religious city. We had fascinated by the view and the scenery. The streets were narrow, the buildings were historical and some people were still living in them.:
 |
| This city was a knights and soldiers city in the past :) |
 |
| There were a lot of cathedral, churches and other religious buildings |
 |
| A synagoge |
And of course we had a video there too:) It wasn't very interesting but it was a fascinating memory for us...
0
No comments:
Post a Comment