Alcalá de Henares

Alcala de Henares originated as Complutum, a Roman city founded in the 1st century BC near a pre-Roman Carpetanian settlement called Iplacea. With around 10,000 inhabitants, it achieved the rank of municipium and sat on the road linking Emerita Augusta to Caesaraugusta. The 3rd-century forum complex included a basilica, curia, baths, and porticoed shops. The House of Hippolytus, one of the few known Roman youth colleges in Hispania, dates to the 3rd-4th centuries AD. The name Alcala derives from the Arabic al-qala (fortress).