The Hidalgo Museum is located in an old 16th century manor house known as Casa del Rey. In it we can discover how was the life of the noblemen who inspired Miguel de Cervantes when he created the character of Don Quixote of La Mancha.
The Museum exhibits original pieces of great value, on loan from important Spanish museums (Museo del Ejército, Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Museo de Santa Cruz, among others).
It also has audiovisual, manipulative and interactive resources with which to experiment throughout the visit. This makes it especially attractive for family visits with children.
The visit is structured on two floors with different rooms on each floor.
Show more contentTHE HIDALGO’S HOUSE. THE PORTAL
The main access to the house from the street is the entrance hall or portal. This part of the museum displays a model of what the house may have looked like in its day. The main function of the hallway was as a commercial cabinet for the house’s products. Therefore, coins of the period, scales, weights and measures of the time, etc., are exhibited.
FROM THE HIDALGO OF ARMS TO THE HIDALGO OF LETTERS
The hidalgos were the first rung on the ladder of nobility. Hidalgo was anyone who needed to be “Son of SOMETHING”, or better said, of someone who had distinguished himself by his works or his position. Hidalguía, however, could also be achieved through merit. During the Middle Ages, they were heavily involved in the wars of the Reconquest. With the fall of the Kingdom of Granada, they left behind their military past to adapt to the new times.
The Catholic Monarchs opened the doors of the civil service and the magistracy to them. The wealthier noble families provided their children with an exquisite education, with lessons in fencing, music, dance and rhetoric, to ensure their entry into the army, the clergy or the administration.
In Alcázar, noblemen are dated from the XV century.
THE ABSENT HOUSE
Here you can find elements related to the countryside such as cowbells and serones. The transportation system for distances that could not be covered on foot is also discussed. This depended on the economic position of the traveler. The humblest went by donkey; those of better position, on horseback; the wealthiest, in a saddle. Only if very bulky goods had to be transported were ox-drawn carts used. The trade of muleteer developed a lot in Alcázar during the 17th century due to the foundation of the Royal Gunpowder Factory. Their work consisted of transporting gunpowder to different parts of Spain.
LIFE IN THE COURTYARD
As the warm months of the year approached, the life of the noble houses moved to the courtyard, the most noble space of the house from the architectural point of view. Here the family gathered to take refuge from the heat and bustle of the street, and daily activities took place. It thus became a dining room, a game room and a workplace. The fountains, plants, wells and shadows cast by the awnings created a fresh and relaxed atmosphere, ideal for relaxation and conviviality, which made this space the favorite corner of La Mancha houses.
El Aljibe: this subway water tank is hidden under the kitchen of the house. It was originally conceived as a cooler to preserve food, but was later remodeled to store rainwater collected from the courtyard. After adding a masonry wall, it was possible to obtain water for human consumption of higher quality than that coming from the well extraction system, which had a high saltpetre content.
THE WINERY. TASTING ROOM
The remains of the support of the life of the wine press, through which the must descended to become wine, are preserved in this cellar. After undergoing a fermentation process, it is stored in wineskins, containers made of animal skin. This form of conservation was key, as it facilitated the transport of the wine, which could then be sold to other more populated localities, such as Madrid or Seville. Another way of storing wine was in earthenware jars, as can be seen in the cave, which is carved into the stone. In Alcázar, besides wine, other products, such as oil, vinegar and water, used to be stored. For the workers, wine was one more food in their diet that allowed them to endure the hard days of work. Cervantes, in the second part of Don Quixote, praises La Mancha wine with these words of Sancho: “But tell me sir, by the century of those you love most. Is this wine from Ciudad Real?”
FROM THE FIELD TO THE CUPBOARD
Food was stored in the pantry or cupboard, a cool, dark place usually located next to the kitchen or in the upper chambers. Cheeses, dried meat, breads, sweets and pork slaughter products, liquors, wine, oil and vinegar could not be missing. To store all these foods, the preservation processes were salting, fermentation, pickling and smoking.
LIFE IN THE KITCHEN
The kitchen was one of the fundamental parts of the house, the nucleus of heat and food. In winter, daily life moved to the kitchen, where the inhabitants sheltered from the cold in the warmth of the stoves. The highest quality food that came from there was consumed by the lords and their children, while the servants kept the leftovers and the lower quality products. The farm employees, however, had their own kitchens outside the main house or at their workplaces.
The kitchen also served as a forum for the transmission of knowledge and customs to the younger generations. It was the place where traditions and popular literature were passed on, where people learned manners and values, where they played and even slept.
The gastronomy was of Mediterranean tradition with a strong presence of Arabic cuisine. This influence was seen not only in the type of food, especially those from the garden, but also in the aromas and spices used in the way they were prepared. Sweet and savory flavors were mixed by incorporating fruits and nuts in the sauces.
PRIVATE SPACES
It was common for noblemen to choose a wife for family and patrimonial interests. Thus, the lives of both went on independently and each had spaces in the house reserved for their activities.
A good wife should be a great hostess, able to entertain visitors with her musical and recitative skills. She had to be faithful and obliging to her husband and have a firm character before the children and vigilant with the service, so that he would fulfill his obligations. Submission, fertility and fidelity were the main characteristics of the hidalgo’s wife.
Within the collective dwelling that was the residence of the nobleman, the lord reserved a series of spaces for his activities: a house within the house itself, separated from the rooms occupied by the family, his court and his servants. The hidalgo used these spaces for social, official and religious commitments derived from his multiple public positions in military orders, brotherhoods and other organizations. Among them, there was the stately hospitality, by which personalities who were passing through the city were welcomed and entertained. The presence of servants was constant in all the hidalgo’s rooms.
THE PALACE
La Mancha houses had three types of rooms: kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms. The living room was the prestige room of the house. When special events were held, this space, normally closed, became the protagonist. This large, uncluttered room, known at the time as the palace, was transformed according to the requirements of different occasions.
The most illustrious visitors were received there, special meals were served and the dead of the family were watched over. Concerts, dance rehearsals and theater performances were also held in the palace, which was decorated with paintings, tapestries, mirrors and chandeliers, and presided over by a sideboard displaying the best china of the house. Nowadays, La Mancha houses preserve a space inherited from the palaces, known as the “solana” or the “comedor bueno” or “comedor de fiesta”.
DANCE, MUSIC AND OTHER ENTERTAINMENT
The Manchegans of the 16th century could not conceive of a social event without music. Whenever they gathered for liturgical and official ceremonies, popular festivities or private celebrations, they accompanied them with music to enhance the solemn or festive character of the event. The attendees did not just listen to the music, but complemented it with a dance according to the circumstances: pavana, gallarda, zarabanda, chacona, pasacalle, folia, seguidilla and villano, depending on the type of celebration. On spring evenings, rounds were made at the door of the houses to flatter the ladies and receive some entertainment.
BELIEFS AND RELIGION
Religion was the center of private, social and institutional life during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Spain. The church controlled education, charity, health care and welfare, popular customs and even forms of entertainment. Alongside the ecclesiastical hierarchy, popular religiosity coexisted, with its own forms and customs that conflicted with the Church. The Inquisition played a fundamental role throughout the period.
Such was the importance of the Catholic Faith that the wealthy and noblemen had an oratory in their homes and maintained a chaplain who officiated daily masses. To these were added those held in public places, to which an important part of their income was destined.
THE HIGH PATIO
The inhabitants of the house had only one access to their rooms: the courtyard gallery. This gallery was built by means of straight feet with footings on a stone base that supported a beam that supported the roof. In later centuries, openings were opened to the galleries in the bays articulated with outbuildings, for better illumination and ventilation of the rooms.
The house also once had other galleries over porticoed corridors. Residents moved along them without having to go down to the ground, which was often dirty and unsafe. Also here they went out to take the sun and the fresh air and hung the products that had to be dried in the air.
