Salamanca Things to Do

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The monastery called Convento de las Dueñas meaning monastery of the Mistresses is a nickname because it was intended as a religious retreat for aristocrats.
The outside is sober but inside the cloister is one of the highlights of Renaissance art in Salamanca.
Built in 1533 on a unique irregular pentagonal plan adapted to the primitive arrangement of dependencies. The smaller side has only two arches, while others reach six or seven arches. In the middle there is a nice garden. The bottom has wide arches on columns with medallions.
On the top floor, the pillars are much closer together with an opulent decoration I have never seen anywhere else. The capitals have an endless imagination and variety. Fantastic beasts, grotesques and devils in all possible combinations and positions depicted. They are of an unknown artist.
One should not miss this expression of fantastic sculptural art.

Open: Monday to Saturday: 11.00 to 12.45 h and 16.30 to 18.45 h.
Closed Sundays and holidays.
Price: 2 €

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The facade of the Universidad de Salamanca on the Patio de las Escuelas is probably the most photographed monument of Salamanca.
Indeed the portal and facade is one of the most important monuments in Spain of the plateresque style. Plateresque means "in the manner of a silversmith".
It is an architectural style exclusive of Spain between the late Gothic and early Renaissance in the late 15th century.

The façade above the portico of the university is richly decorated in relief, often in medallions or cartouches. There are the portraits of the "Reyes Catolicos" Ferdinand and Isabelle, the arms of Emperor Charles Quint (in Spain Carlos I) and higher a pope and other figures. The iconography of the images is still controversy.
Actually what is of real interest for the students and the visitors is a sculpture of frog "rana" on a skull at mid level of the right pilaster.
According to the legend students who found "a" frog would get a university degree. Others say they have to find "the" frog on the façade. But that would make succeeding in studies too easy as everybody knows where is that frog on the pilaster! So this is another subject of iconographic controversy in Salamanca.
More probably that the frog on the skull, representing the sin of lust associated here to death, served as a warning to students about the behavior they should have. In a city with about 6000 students in the 16th c., all men, the sin of lust was supposed to be quite widespread!

South of the city, an old bridge now closed to vehicles, it is the first sign of roman presence. Though having suffered a few transformations, the last one in the 17th century replacing a whole section of the bridge, the original conception is still visible in the old section.

There's probably a revamping and changing of certain plazas and displays, so I cannot speak for how long this may last. But I've often walked through cities and admired the distinctive style of manholes. This is particularly true for older towns when the city's emblems, shield, crest, etc. are artistically displayed on the manholes amongst the cobblestone streets.

Salamanca here has made a tribute to those manholes, with an outdoor display in Plaza Constitución.

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Two hundred meters east of the cathedrals Nueva and Vieja you will discover another of the jewels of Salamanca the Church and Convent of San Esteban (Saint Stephen).
The first impression of its majestic plateresque facade with pronounced reliefs and statues is magnificent. Above the door is the Martyrdom of St. Stephen by Ceroni from 1610.
Next to the church stands the imposing Convento de San Esteban. The architecture is a combination of Gothic and Renaissance influences.
The convent, still active, belongs to the order of the Dominicans since the 13th c. I was always told that Dominicans and Jesuits are the most intellectual among the catholic orders (Saint Thomas d'Aquino was a Dominican). Actually Columbus came here to discuss with the Dominicans and the geographers of the University his project of a voyage to the Indies.

See the storks on the top of the convent façade.
Church and Convent can be visited. I regret we missed the visit because it was closed for the siesta.
Open: 10 - 13 h and 16 - 19 h. Price 3€

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The university of Salamanca Minor Schools would prepare students for a bachelor's degree, first step to a license or doctor's degree. You can visit them and I strongly recommend the patio from 1428 which is wonderful in its elegant simplicity. This style of arches is called "Salamantin" as it is specific to Salamanca.
You can see on the arches red "V" graffiti. It's a tradition going back to the 15th c. Students having obtained their Doctor's degree would paint them meaning "Victor Victoria".

From this patio you can enter the University museum (same ticket as the main university building Escuelas Mayores on the other side of the Plaza). Well know here is the painted ceiling by Fernando Gallego, the Sky of Salamanca, which shows the signs of the zodiac and mythological elements.

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Upstairs in the Escuelas Mayores behind a beautiful Renaissance door and gate of 1526 you can see one of the oldest university libraries in Europe containing manuscripts going back to the 11th c. The books are stored on wooden shelves; there are globes adding to that particular décor of old libraries I like very much. The fund consists of 40.000 volumes mainly from the 16th to 18th c.

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On the first floor you will discover the old classrooms, organized around a central courtyard.
The most interesting of these is the Aula Fray Luis de León, who still has the original benches and the pulpit of the most famous professor of Salamanca. He was denounced to the Inquisition for his translation and commentary of the Hebraic Song of Songs and for criticizing the text of the Vulgate. He was consequently imprisoned at Valladolid from March 1572 until December 1576; the charges against him were then abandoned, and he was released with an admonition.
He returned to Salamanca as a professor of Biblical exegesis and held the chairs of Moral Philosophy and Biblical Studies.
After spending five years in prison he resumed his course to the spot where it left off, saying: "Dicebamus hesterna die - Like I said yesterday"

The statue of this great man stands on the patio de las Escuelas facing the main façade of the University.

As what concerns the room where he was teaching, the furniture is the original from the 16th c. The benches were a marked progress because usually students were sitting on the ground.