The story of this place
After a devastating fire in 1561, Philip II ordered Valladolid's central square rebuilt as a unified, arcaded, right-angled space—the prototype that inspired the plazas mayores of Madrid, Salamanca and countless Spanish and Latin American towns. Valladolid was then a de facto capital of the Spanish empire; the court sat here, and briefly again from 1601 to 1606. It was in this city, in a modest house, that Christopher Columbus died on 20 May 1506, embittered and largely forgotten, still insisting he had reached Asia. Cervantes lived here while awaiting the success of 'Don Quixote,' and King Philip II himself was born in Valladolid in 1527.