• Europe 2025
    Plaza Mayor in the mid afternoon, pretty quiet
    Looking back into the plazaSalamanca streets looking towards the cathedralsThe building on the right is a 1500s palace, now a library. On the left is La Clerica from the 1600sLa Clerica and library again. The shells are a family crestSalamanca libraryCloisters of the library. Was originally a palace the royal family lived upstairs, servants belowLa ClericaUniversity building facade. There is a frog hidden in the design somewhere ........ on top of this skull!!University buildingsBeautiful sandstoneSection of the old town wall. Not a lot leftRoman bridge, built in the first centuryNew cathedral. The top towers are out of alignment due to the earthquakeFacade of the old cathedral. The door on the right is where the procession went in. See videosClose up. It shows the three wise menCathedral domeOld cathedralRecent restorations saw a few special carvings added to the cathedral. Yes that is an astronaut!And this is a lion eating an ice cream!Old on the left, the tower is part of the newWedding on the balcony opposite!St Marks, Romanesque style built in the 12th century with baroque bell tower added laterProcession into the cathedral. They were carrying this effigy of MaryProcession going into the cathedral. This is the next morning to the other photosThis is about 7am

    Old town Salamanca

    September 19 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Today we were on the move from lovely Porto back into Spain to Salamanca.

    One thing I have noticed is how the colour of the stone in the buildings changes. Lisbon was very white limestone, Porto was grey granite, and Salamanca has golden sandstone.

    We arrived mid-afternoon and after a bit of a siesta we met our local guide and went for a walk. The story of Salamanca is similar to many others. The Romans arrived around the first century, the town really took off after the Black Death in the 1300s with much of the significant building happening in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. It is amazing how old these places are!

    Not far from our hotel is the main square of Salamanca, this is called Plaza Mayor and was built in the 18th century in classic baroque style. This is the focal point of the town and while it was reasonably quiet in the afternoon it really ramped up in the early evening. The plaza is dominated by town hall and while we were there having a beer there were a couple of weddings going on like we saw in Florence and Bologna last year.

    We then wandered around as the guide gave us the history of some key buildings. This is another university town with about 55,000 students living here. Many of the old buildings have been repurposed as lecture rooms and for other university purposes.

    Many buildings were damaged in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. This is believed to be the largest earthquake to ever hit Europe and estimated to have been about a 9 on the Richter scale.

    There are two cathedrals next to each other with the plan being to demolish the old one when the new one was finished. Once the new one was done it was decided to leave both.

    There is an original Roman bridge across the river outside the walls of the town. Most of the old walls have been demolished but there is still a small section near the old bridge.

    After our walk around town we stopped for a couple of beers in the plaza and watched a couple of brides come and go.

    We only have one night in Salamanca, tomorrow we are off to Madrid.    Read more