Cervantes and his creations

The monument to Cervantes and his creations Don Quixote and Sancho Panza dominates the centre of the Plaza de España. Cervantes, then relatively unknown, gave the wildly popular playwright Lope de Vega a copy of his novel Don Quixote, hoping for praise. Lope de Vega wrote to a friend dismissively that there were no poets ‘as bad as Cervantes, nor so foolish as to praise Don Quixote.’ The novel was an instant success and is today considered a foundational work of Western literature and the world’s first modern novel.