 According to local legend, "Don Quixote" author Miguel de Cervantes was held prisoner here, and refers to the municipality in the prologue of "Don Quixote" Part I, making a joke about imprisonment"engendered in a jail"because the word "argamasilla" is Spanish for "mortar".The text talks about it as the place where Don Quixote is buried, and that the "Academicians of Argamasilla" meet at the gravesite.Contrary to the foundation of the joke, Argamasilla de Alba has never had a group of academicians working there, and modern Cervantes scholars believe this is a reference to his well-documented imprisonment in the Cárcel Real of Seville.