The new cathedral ( completed in the eighteenth century ) and the Romanesque old cathedral ( begun c. 1140 ) at Salamanca, SpainPaul Almasy
Reading: Salamanca | Spain
As an authoritative iberian colony, it was ravaged by the carthaginian general Hannibal in 217 bc. A roman town grew up there because Salamanca ( Salmantica ) and its bridge were on the “ Silver Road ” from Astorga to Sevilla. It became a diocese in the seventh hundred, though during the moorish occupation the bishop lived in Oviedo. From the 8th to the eleventh hundred, the city was in the area of war between Christians and Moors. The christian repopulation took topographic point from 1087 to 1102. In 1178 Ferdinand II of Leon held his Cortes ( parliament ) there and granted a especial fuero ( charter of privileges ) to the city, which was by then the moment in his kingdom. The University of Salamanca originated under Alfonso IX in 1218. St. Teresa of Ávila founded a Carmelite convent in the city in 1570. In the spanish Civil War ( 1936–39 ) Gen. Francisco Franco took up residence in the episcopal palace in Salamanca. Salamanca ’ s many outstanding architectural and historical landmarks include the Romanesque old cathedral ( begun c. 1140 ) and the newly cathedral ( begun 1513 and completed in the eighteenth hundred ). The chief building of the university ( 1415–33 ), facing the modern cathedral, has a fine Plateresque west facade ( 1494 ). Adjoining buildings include the early mansion of the university ’ s most celebrated curate, the learner and writer Miguel de Unamuno ( die 1936 ), with his library and personal effects. To the south of the new cathedral stand the Neoclassical Colegio de Anaya ( 1760–68 ), designed by José Mamerto Hermosilla, and the only remaining erstwhile residential college, the Colegio de Fonseca ( 1527–78 ), broadly known as the Colegio de los Irlandeses because it was ceded after the Peninsular War ( 1808–14 ) to the Irish as a seminary and was so used until World War II. The staff of law adjoins the university, and the staff of medicine is in the valley to the west. Three residential colleges for students, the first of their kind in Spain, were built in the 1950s.
The former Jesuit seminary ( 1617–1755 ) is immediately the Pontifical University, most of whose students are priests or seminarians ; the Jesuits even officiate in its church of La Clerecía. besides luminary are the Italian-style church of the convent of the Augustinians ( 1636–87 ), containing a paint of the Immaculate Conception by José de Ribera ; the Dominican convent and church of San Esteban ( 1524–1610 ), older remaining portions of which include the cloister where Christopher Columbus was reputedly examined by the Council of Theologians in 1486 ; the Romanesque Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury ( rebuild fifteenth hundred ) ; and the 12th-century church of San Martín. The city calm centres on its fine arcaded Plaza Mayor ( 1729–33 ; designed by Alberto Churriguera and completed by Andrés García de Quiñones ), which was primitively intended to serve on occasion as a bullring and which has a surrounding arcade ornamented on two sides with medallions of the kings of Spain and General Franco. There besides is the Town Hall ( Ayuntamiento ) designed by Alberto Churriguera. other profane landmarks include the Roman bridge, 15 of whose arches date from Roman times ; the Torre del Clavero ( c. 1480 ), about all that remains of the town walls ; the fabled Cave of Salamanca in the destroy crypt of the erstwhile church of St. Cyprian ; and the 16th-century Casa de las Conchas, the outside walls of which are covered with carvings of scallop shells, the symbol of the military order of Santiago of which its first owner, Talavera Maldonado, was chancellor. A military airfield is 12 miles ( 19 kilometer ) east at Matacán. Salamanca besides serves as an agrarian trade center. Its industries are chiefly food processing and local manufacture ( chemical, leather, metallic element, furniture ). tourism is the economic mainstay, boosted by the mix of advanced and historical neighbourhoods that have resulted from the many restorations the city has undergo. Pop. ( 2006 est. ) 159,754.
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