Alcalá de Henares Guide

Alcalá de Henares, or Alcalá on the Henares, is a Spanish city, whose historical centre is one of the UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, and formerly one of the first bishoprics founded in Spain. Located in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, 35 km northeast of the city of Madrid, at a height of 2000 feet above sea level, it has a population of around 200,000, the second largest of the region after the Spanish capital itself. The city is generally known simply as "Alcalá", but "de Henares" is often appended to differentiate it from a dozen cities sharing the name Alcalá (from a Moorish Arabic word for fortification). It is capital of Comarca de Alcalá.

The surroundings of the town are austere and bleak, but it is protected by hills on the north and east sides. Though part of the hills contains one of the biggest land-fill rubbish sites for the whole of the North East of Madrid. Depending on the prevailing winds a thin-veiled cloud of methane gas which emits from this rubbish tip filters over many parts of the city.

The centre of the city is medieval, with many twisty cobbled streets, and a lot of historic buildings. Unfortunately the city has not been cared by the city councillors and a lot of the streets badly need repair. Calle Andres Saborit is a beautiful cobbled street which runs adjacent to the old fortified wall. Sadly this tree-lined street has nearly all of its bollards broken, and the cars park on the pavement, making it impossible for pedestrians to walk freely.

Apart from the city centre where the cobbled streets physical limit the speed of the traffic, the rest of the city is anti-pedestrian. The cars park everywhere with cars parking ontop of the pavement, zebra crossings and double parking. The city does not seem to have any proper parking plan for its residents.

The main artery into the city from Madrid is the Via Complutense. This is a dual carriage-way with a speed limit of 40km but most days its like a race track with cars and buses speeding up to 80km. There are very few pelican crossings and they only stay green for pedestrians for a maximum of 10 seconds, that is if the traffic stop in the red which often they do not observe. Thousands of people take their lives into their hands crossing the pelican crossing from The Saint Bernard Gate to The O´Donnell Park.

Fortunately the old city centre has been saved, unlike the suburbs. The has been no clear planning by the city councillors and the city has been destroyed by the building of ugly seventies-style high rise blocks. With lack of clear building control, the city has developed into a beautiful centre surrounded by ugly working-class housing estates.

A city with such historical importance it is sad that the city councillors do not do more. A lot of old buildings are in ruins, many of the pavements are broken with no slabs and a lot of the roads have not seen asphalting for years. One of the most important streets in this city is Calle del Cardenal Cisneros. This street takes the tourists from The Madrid Gate, the entrance of the city, to the old city centre and the fabulous Cathedral in the Santos Niños Square. Unfortunately the street is not cobbled as it should be. It is poorly asphalted with extremely narrow pavements, impossible for people to pass one another, and with cars parked haphazardly.

Licenced under GFDL, derived from Wikipedia.