Spanish Scientists Have Found the Remains of Miguel de Cervantes

Burial site of ‘Don Quixote’ author Miguel de Cervantes confirmed http://cnn.it/1DxAvMw pic.twitter.com/IQKTJfAT3U

— @CNN

Spain has been searching for the bones of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes for quite a long time. We wrote about this “quixotic” quest in 2012. Today, news broke that the search is over and scientists are confident that bones found in Madrid’s Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians are his. BBC reports:

“The remains are in a bad state of conservation and do not allow us to do an individual identification of Miguel de Cervantes,” said forensic scientist Almudena Garcia Rubio.

“But we are sure what the historical sources say is the burial of Miguel de Cervantes and the other people buried with him is what we have found.”

The search involved 30 researches and used radar and 3D scanners to find and confirm the remains. Cervantes died on April 22nd, 1616, meaning his remains have been found 399 years after his death. The crypt will be opened to the public next year on the 400th anniversary of his death. His masterpiece, Don Quixote, is considered by many to be the first European novel and is still widely read around the world.