14,700.
C/ Barbero 1, Tel: 926 56 22 31 .
Tue.
Virgen de Criptana (Easter Mon), Cristos de Villejos (first Thu in Aug), Ferias (23–28 Aug).
The remaining ten windmills of what was once La Mancha’s largest group – 32 – stand on a hillcrest in the town. Three are 16th-century and have their original machinery intact. One is the tourist information office, and three others are museums.
More windmills stand above Alcázar de San Juan and Mota del Cuervo , a good place to buy queso Manchego , local sheep’s cheese.
Cervantes doesn’t specify where his hero was born but several places are mentioned in the novel. Don Quixote is knighted in an inn in Puerto Lápice, believing it to be a castle. His sweetheart, Dulcinea, lives in El Toboso. The windmills he tilts at, imagining them to be giants, are thought to be those at Campo de Criptana. Another adventure takes place in the Cueva de Montesinos.