ACIEK CONFERENCE 2025

Welcome to the University of Alcalá, a UNESCO world heritage site. Founded in 1499 by Cardinal Cisneros, it is one of the oldest universities in Spain and boasts among its former alumni some of the major figures of Spanish history and culture: its lectures have been attended by Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo, Tirso de Molina, Fray Luis de León, Ignacio de Loyola, Juan de Mariana, Arias Montano, Ginés de Sepúlveda and Gaspar de Jovellanos, to name just a few. The city of Alcalá de Henares is well-known as the birthplace of Cervantes, creator of the unforgettable Don Quixote.

In recognition both of its cultural importance and its impressive architectural inheritance, in 1998 the University was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Only thirty kilometers from the center of Madrid, today the University of Alcalá is a modern institution which offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs adapted to the European Higher Education Area and covering all fields of knowledge, from the humanities to engineering, and from the social sciences to experimental and biomedical sciences.

As well as possessing a rich architectural and artistic patrimony, the legacy of more than five centuries of history, the University of Alcalá is also firmly committed to technological innovation, collaboration with the worlds of business and industry, and the internationalization of its studies and research as proven by the more than 2,300 international students currently reading for our degrees.

The City of Alcalá de Henares is in the Autonomous Region of Madrid, 30 km from Madrid on the Madrid-Barcelona motorway and 15 km from Madrid’s international Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Airport. At present it has a population of over 200,000.

Alcalá de Henares is also the birthplace of one of Spanish literature’s greatest writers. Miguel de Cervantes was born in the city in 1547. He is universally renowned for his novel El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha), considered by many to be the first modern novel and one of the great works of literature.

The Cervantes Institute was created in his honour as a public institution designed to promote and teach the Spanish language and to disseminate Spanish and Latin American culture.

The link between the city and the Spanish language became even closer with the establishment in 1976 of the Cervantes Prize for Spanish Literature which is awarded annually in the Paraninfo or Great Hall of the University. This prize is the most important award for creative writing in the Spanish language.
The typical gastronomy of Alcalá de Henares includes dishes typical of Castilian-La Mancha cuisine, such as migas with chorizo sausage and garlic soup. Among the confectionery, the typical “rosquillas alcalaínas”, “costrada” and “almendras garrapiñadas” (sugar-coated almonds) stand out.

Alcalá is also famous for the tapas that many of its bars offer with a drink, a tradition and custom that is deeply rooted in many of its establishments.