Cervantes' House

Casa de Cervantes
The door on the right belongs to the Academy of Fine Arts.
Interactive fullscreen map
Established	1862[citation needed] Restarted 2005[citation needed]
Location	Valladolid, Province of Valladolid, Castile and León,  Spain
Coordinates	41°38′53.99″N 4°43′37.99″W / 41.6483306°N 4.7272194°W / 41.6483306; -4.7272194
Director	Miguel Íscar[citation needed]
Website	museocervantes.mcu.es
Historic site
Spanish Cultural Heritage
Official name	Casa de Cervantes
Type	Immovable
Criteria	Monument
Designated	9 June 1958
Reference no.	RI-51-0001259

The Casa de Cervantes ("Cervantes' House") is a museum located in the city of Valladolid, Spain. The building was the home of the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. It is not to be confused with other houses associated with Cervantes, the birthplace in Alcala de Henares and the museum in Esquivias.

Overview

Valladolid is where the Spanish Court was briefly, from 1601 to 1606, the last time it left Madrid. (See es:Capitalidad de Valladolid.) Cervantes' House was part of the wave of construction that filled the demand created by the sudden growth in population the Corte's relocation provoked. That is to say, it was a new or nearly-new house.

There is good information on Cervantes' Valladolid house, where he was living in 1605. By chance, a prominent nobleman was murdered in the street in front of Cervantes' house. The body of the dying man was taken to the lower floor of the house Cervantes lived in, where he expired. The ensuing investigation involved depositions from everyone in the house at the time.

From this documentation, thoroughly studied by es:Luis Astrana Marín, we know that instead of occupying the three houses joined to create the museum, his mother lived in one room and the rest of his household in another, above a tavern on the ground floor.^{[1]: Vol. 6, Chapter LXXIII} Only women were living with him: his wife Catalina, his very religious ("beata") sister Magdalena, a seamstress for wealthy gentlemen,^[2] his sister Andrea, also a seamstress, her illegitimate daughter Costanza, Cervantes' illegitimate daughter Isabel, and a maid named María. It is well documented in the testimony that prostitutes were associated with the house, but the identity of the prostitutes has never been clarified. There were suspicions that among them may have been some of the women in Cervantes' household, who were the only single adult wonen living in the building.

The building has been designated with the heritage listing Bien de Interés Cultural (Property of Cultural Value), and has been protected since 9 June 1958.^{[citation needed]}

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