ALCAZAR DE

SAN JUAN, or ALCAZAR  , a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real, in the plain of La Mancha, at ALCESTER the junction of the Madrid-Manzanares and Madrid-Albacete railways . Pop . (1900) 11,499 . Owing to its position on two important railways, Alcazar has a flourishing transit-trade in the wines of Estremadura and Andalusia; the soda and alkali of La Mancha are used in the manufacture of soap; and gun-powder, chocolate and inlaid daggers are also made here . Alcfizar is sometimes identified with the Roman Alce, captured by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 18o $.c: It derives its existing name from its medieval Moorish castle (al-kasr), which was afterwards garrisoned by the knights of St John . The townsfolk contend that the great Cervantes was a native of Alcazar; and, although this claim must be disallowed, much of the action of his masterpiece, Don Quixote, takes place in the neighbourhood . El Toboso, for instance, a village 12 M . E.N.E . [pop . (1900) 1895], was the home of the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso; Argamasilla de Alba (35o5), 22 M . S.E., is declared by tradition to be the birthplace of Don Quixote himself . Local antiquaries even identify the knight with Don Rodrigo de Pacheco, whose portrait adorns the parish church; and the same authorities hold that part of the romance was written while Cervantes was a prisoner in their town .

An edition of Don Quixote was published at Argamasilla in 1864 .