Indian Chief Travel Guides

Castilla-La Mancha and Don Quixote

Castilla-La Mancha bears the stamp of its beloved author on storefronts, mesones, inns and street signs. In almost every town with even a remote connection to the epic adventurer Don Quixote, you will find a statue or plaque (or likely both) paying homage to the work and attracting tourists that pay to experience a little bit of it. The windmills of the Manchas, or plains, are scattered in isolated clusters or singularly atop hills. They were introduced into Spain from the Low Countries in the late 16th century, a short time before Cervantes would pen his famous story and create one of its most popular scenes out of them. Mistaking the bright white windmills as giants, Quixote rode atop his horse Rocinante to attack them with all the bravery and ill consideration only a truly heroic dunce could muster. “The wind turned it with such violence that it shivered his weapon in pieces, dragging the horse and his rider with it, and sent the knight rolling badly injured across the plain.” Man, machine and the land had thus been properly introduced and the status of each assured. The windmills that survive to this day ceased their functions at the turn of the 20th century.