The Centro Virtual Cervantes (http://cvc.cervantes.es) is the Internet-based branch of the Instituto Cervantes, the official Spanish institution commissioned to disseminate the use and study of Spanish language and culture around the world.

Since its creation in December 1997, the CVC has rapidly become one of the mostimportant reference sites devoted to Spanish language and culture on the WWW, havingreached an average of over 100,000 visitors a month. This increasing number of visitorsis primarily due to the great variety of resources available at the CVC website, whichattract both professionals and the public in general. These include announcements ofcultural events under Actos Culturales, the four discussion forums, each of whichfocuses on a specific topic, and the language classroom, Aula de Lengua, designed forboth teachers and learners of Spanish.

The CVC front page enables direct access to the entire contents which are well structured,and organised in a very user-friendly manner. The central part is dedicated to currentcultural events and is therefore constantly up-dated. The sections included are listedon the left and right hand side of the main menu page.