The Don Quixote Iconographic Museum opened its doors in 1987 to display the collection that Eulalio Ferrer had created around the literary character, Don Quixote of la Mancha, and which has been since considered the largest and most important collection in the world. This repertoire is said to have its origins in 1936, when Ferrer was fleeing the Spanish Civil War and, while in a refugee camp, decided to exchange a pack of cigarettes for a miniature edition of the The Ingenious Gentleman.