Alcázar de San Juan is the largest town in La Mancha, sitting on the vast Castilian plain south of Madrid. It is primarily known as an important railway junction — one of the busiest in Spain — and as wine country: the surrounding vineyards produce large quantities of Castilla-La Mancha wines. Cervantes scholars have long debated whether it, rather than Alcalá de Henares, was the true birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, a claim the town takes seriously.
The town centre has a couple of interesting monuments: the Torre de Mudéjar, the octagonal Mudéjar tower that remains from the original Knights of St John fortress, and a Centro Cervantino dedicated to the claim that Cervantes was born here. The windmills of La Mancha on the ridge south of town are the quintessential Don Quixote landscape — white towers with wooden sails against a vast flat sky. It is not a major destination but a reasonable stop on a road trip through the region, and the local wine is worth trying.