Instituto Cervantes

The Instituto Cervantes is a public institution created by Spain to promote and teach the Spanish language and to disseminate Spanish and Hispanic American culture. It has two central headquarters: one of them in the popular Calle de Alcalá, and the other in the town of Alcalá de Henares. The one located in the capital is housed in the building known as the “Caryatids” building, the former headquarters of the Central Bank. Putting what was once the vault of the bank to good use, the Instituto Cervantes created La Caja de las Letras (The Vault of Words) in 2007, a kind of time capsule in which pieces related to science, arts and literature of Hispanic culture are kept. Some of these objects belong to such noteworthy people as writers Gabriel García Márquez and Miguel Hernández, or film director Luis García Berlanga. This latter himself placed an unpublished script inside the vault two years before he died. All these treasures will be discovered on the date they themselves have set.