The world’s first university city, serving as a model for the rest of Europe, and the birthplace of Spain’s most feted author, Miguel de Cervantes, Alcala de Henares is a medieval city twenty miles north-east of Madrid. In the city’s Archbishop’s Palace, Christopher Columbus received his commission from the Catholic Monarchs to sail west in search of the East Indies in April 1492 – a feat he thought he’d achieved six months later, landing in San Salvador, Bahamas.
