Salamanca is a stunning city with sooo much history.

We travelled from Caceres to Salamanca on a Sunday. Luckily we had our tickets pre-booked as there was not a person to be found at the bus station.

We went on the Supa economy bus – has only 3 seats across (instead of 4) – lots of space to spread out.  Airconditioning, wifi and super comfy.

On arrival in Salamanca Leanne had to call a taxi – and use here Spanish – was pretty impressive.

Our apartment was fantastic – see it here.  The owner Pablo was there to meet us.  He was so helpful and gave us some great information.  The reason I chose this apartment (booked through booking.com) was the location, the kitchen with a washing machine, but mainly because of the private cute court yard. The apartment was only 30 metres from the Salamanca Cathedral (the back side – so not too busy).  Also, it was close to the other historical places and restaurants as well, including an easy 10 minute stroll to the Plaza Mayor (WOW!) 

Another great thing about the apartment was it was a 5 minute walk to the river and the roman bridge– which we walked along every day. 

Salamanca is well known as a university city.  There are three universities, two public and one private.  The private one – Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca is very historic and very prestigious.  The public universities are very affordable for Spanish students.  There are over 30,000 students in Salamanca with 25% of those from overseas. 

There is a great vibe to Salamanca and having all the university students adds to this. You can also find lots of very cheap cafes and tapas bars.

Salamanca’s complete old town is a Unesco World heritage site – yep the whole old town.  This is because it has so many historical buildings, convents, monestaries, churches etc. in one area.

We found the Convent de San Estaban on one of our morning walks.  The frontage of the building took 54 years to finish – you can see why.

One of the fascinating things about this building is it the meeting place of Queen Isabella I and Christopher Columbus met to hash out the details of his trip to discover the Americas.

Salamanca Cathedral

This cathedral is unique because it is actually two cathedrals joined to make one.  The old cathedral built in the 1100’s still has a lot of its original features.  Once it was completed the powers that be decided it wasn’t grand enough so they built another one – the new cathedral - in the 1,500’s. There are a few quirky decorative items on the outside of the cathedral. One is a frog on a skull and the other is an astronaut.  Were there astronauts in the 1,500’s?

The facade of this double cathedral was truly impressive.  It glows gold at night and that really emphasises the decorative features.

The Rio Tormes

We loved walking along the path that runs along the river.  You can walk along both sides but the one on the city side is more picturesque.

There are lovely flowering shrubs, gorgeous big trees and parks dotted along the walk. Of course, there is an very old historic roman bridge with 26 arches – although only 15 are original.

Lots of activity on the river. There were stand up paddleboards, rowing boats and people fishing. 

One of the highlights when Lyle was out walking one morning when he came across some young Spanish guys practising bullfighting.  One guy had a big bull’s head on a wheelbarrow type contraption and the other guy was dressed as a bullfighter and had the red cape.  The guy with the bull head charges at the other guy swings his cape.

We found out later that there is a bullfighting college here and that is where they practice.

The Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor is the most beautiful plaza in Spain (we think anyway – especially at night).

King Philipe V ordered the construction of the Plaza in 1729 for bullfighting. 

The ground floor is all restaurants and shops (including about 50 icecream shops).  There are three stories sitting above the 88 arches with round plaques above each one of famous Spanish people.  The three stories have 247 privately owned apartments with identical balconies.

The one thing you absolutely must do when you are in Salamanca is to be in the Plaza Mayor when the lights turn on.  Now they don’t just turn on randomly – they are programmed to turn on all at the exact same time.  In summer that is about 10.20pm at night. 

Imagine this – you are sitting in the plaza, eating tapas, drinking vino, watching all the activity around you.  Families out walking, little kids running around. Teenagers playing small games of football (soccer) other groups of young people sitting in the centre of the plaza.  The crowd is growing, the sky is darkening and then all of a sudden - the plaza goes from a soft glow to instant shining gold as the buildings are all lit up. Everyone is cheering and clapping.  It is one of the most memorable nights that we had in Spain.

Night tour of Salamanca

We booked an Airbnb experience to do a history tour with some drinks and tapas chucked in for good measure.

Our guide – Mark – was an English guy who has been living in Spain for a long time.

Lyle loves his history and really enjoyed finding out more in this tour.  Some of the walls of the old university buildings have reddish writing on them.  They are the names of the graduating students that they would write on in ox blood (so rumour has it- but it was really clay, oil and paprika). The writing isn’t bright red – it’s quite faded and you actually don’t really notice it until it is pointed out to you, then you see it everywhere.

The historical archives of the Spanish civil war are held in Salamanca.  They are now called historical memory documents – due to the Historical Memory Law in 2007.  During the civil war the deacon of the university – Migel de Unamuno supported Franco – then he was horrified by the actions of Franco’s soldiers, so he stood up to Franco and ended up under house arrest until he died on 31st December 1936 from a supposed heart attack.  Some think he was poisoned.  There is a large statue of Unamuno that people gather and celebrate him every 31st December.

Another very interesting building in Salamanca is the Casa de Las Conchas – or Shell house. It was built in 1493 to 1517 by Rodrigo Arias de Maldonado who was a knight of the Order of Santiago de Compestela and a professor at the University of Salamanca.  The façade is covered in more than 300 shells, the symbol of the order of Santiago and of the Camino de Santiago. 

Rumour has it there were two gold coins hidden behind one of the shells.  The Shell house is now the public library of Salamanca.

We really enjoyed the two hour two with Mark that turned into a five hour tour.  He is such a knowledgeable friendly guy. 

Food and wine

We followed our hosts advice for restaurants.  Salamanca is a city of two food scenes.  There are really cheap and cheerful places obviously for students.  Then on the other hand there are very expensive 5 star restaurants.

We found a Chinese restaurant out of the old town.  We stopped and had a cerveza (beer) on our way and we noticed once you are out of the old town the food and drink prices drop dramatically.  The Chinese restaurant for a large entrée, two mains and a rice and a bottle of wine was $50 Australian dollars.

There were some unusual items on the menus of the restaurants in the old town. One had nose and tripe stew – yuck and the other had roasted pig face (with a picture of a cooked pig face) – disgusting.

Summary

Salamanca is a vibrant university city in Castile Y Leon in central western Spain.  It is steeped in history at every corner of the old town. 

The Plaza Mayor is the most beautiful in Spain, especially at night. The Salamanca cathedral, which is two cathedrals joined is certainly unique, especially with it’s unusual decorative features.

The Tormes River with the roman bridge that runs through the city is beautiful and a great place for a morning walk.

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