Campo de Criptana: the windmills of Don Quixote

The marvellous windmills, a Spanish literature icon of XVI century, of Campo de Criptana (Castilla la Mancha, Spain), is something unique as much in this land as in the rest of the world.

 

Here, windmills receive world fame for they inspired the famous Miguel de Cervantes in the narration of the most known adventure in universal literature: Don Quixote against the "Giants".

Campo de Criptana is a notable place as it was the scenery of Don Quixote battle, that here was set. 

Among the windmills of this culturally rich city, there are the top three ones who still conserve the structure and original technology dating back to the XVI century (Infanto, Burleta and Sardinero), aimed to work the cereal similarly as they did it in the past times, by exploiting only the human genius and the natural wind force.

 

Don Quixote, in the VIII chapter of the book, after a physical incident, builds in his imagination an adventure against the “Giants”, which were the windmills of Castilla in real life.

He is absolutely convinced of the battle and, helped by his esquire, gets ready to face the challenge.

Of the good fortune which the valiant Don Quixote had in the terrible and undreamt-of adventure of the windmills, with other occurrences worthy to be fitly recorded.

“At this point they came in sight of thirty forty windmills that there are on plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, 

- Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes; for this is righteous warfare, and it is God's good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth.

- What giants? - said Sancho Panza.

- Those thou seest there, - answered his master, - with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.

- Look, your worship, - said Sancho; - what we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go.

- It is easy to see, - replied Don Quixote, - that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat.

So saying, he gave the spur to his steed Rocinante, heedless of the cries his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were windmills and not giants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting

- Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you.

Miguel de Cervantes