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[Asian Nicole]

Hello Gentlemen,

The University of Salamanca is a public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the third oldest in the world. It has over 30,000 students.

In popular belief, the university was associated with sorcery. A certain cave in Salamanca was considered the site of a school of black magic. In Spanish, Salamanca may mean "cave", "an evil iguana" and "hand trick". In Romanian folklore, the devil runs a school of black magic named Scholomance. The name is derived from "Salamanca" and the wise king "Solomon".

In 2018, the institution celebrated its eighth centennial.

Close up of the plateresque façade of the University of Salamanca

Plateresque façade of the university facing a statue of Fray Luis de León (1527 –1591), was a Spanish lyric poet, Augustinian friar, theologian and academic.

While serving as professor of Biblical scholarship at the University of Salamanca, Fray Luis also wrote many immortal works of Spanish Christian poetry and translated both Biblical Hebrew poetry and Latin Christian poetry into the Spanish language. Despite being a devout and believing Roman Catholic priest, Fray Luis was descended from a family of Spanish Jewish Conversos and this, as well as his vocal advocacy for teaching the Hebrew language in Catholic universities and seminaries. According to Edith Grossman, "Fray Luis is generally considered the leading poet in the far-reaching Christianization of the Renaissance in Spain during the sixteenth-century.

Plateresque façade of the university facing a statue of Fray Luis de León

The old library of the University of Salamanca. The library holds about 906,000 volumes.

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[Asian Nicole]

Hello Gentlemen,

When we speak of the Cathedral of Salamanca in fact we are referring to two churches joined together. First, there is the old cathedral dating from the 12th-13th centuries; and then the new one from the 16th century.

The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, popularly known as New Cathedral is, together with the Old Cathedral, one of the two cathedrals of Salamanca, Spain. It is the seat of the diocese of Salamanca. It was constructed between 1533 and 1733 mixing late Gothic, Plateresque and Baroque styles. It was commissioned by Ferdinand V of Castile. It is one of the largest cathedrals in Spain in size and its bell tower, at 92 meters high, is also one of the tallest.

Plateresque South facade

Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" (plata being silver in Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially architectural, developed in Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance in the late 15th century and spread over the next two centuries.

Plateresque Western facade

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[Asian Nicole]

Hello Gentlemen,

The New Cathedral was built between 1513 and 1733 preserving the Old Cathedral. The idea of building a new cathedral arose in the 15th century due to the demographic increase of the city, especially because of the strong attraction of the University. Therefore, the Old Cathedral seemed at that time "small, dark and low". They had the support of King Ferdinand the Catholic, who in 1509 ordered the architects who had worked in Toledo and Seville.

The cathedral is, together with Cathedral of Segovia, one of the last two cathedrals of Gothic style to be built in Spain. The new cathedral was built, continuing with the late Gothic of its origins, between the 16th and 18th centuries, although at the end of the 16th century the chevet, thought with a Gothic ambulatory, was changed for a flat one and during the 18th century two elements were added that broke strikingly with the predominant style of the temple: a Baroque dome over the transept and the upper bodies of the bell tower. This bell tower is 93 meters high.

Chapel of the Virgin of the Pilar

Romanesque Christ of the Battles, made in the 12th century.

Chapel of San José

Golden Chapel: the chapel of All Saints

Azulejos in the Golden Chapel from the Talavera de la Reina pottery

Astronaut sculpture

Retrochoir
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