Salamanca
7/4/2025
We took a train from Segovia to the town of Salamanca which is straight west of Segovia about 100 miles. It was a little over an hour by fast train. It was a really nice town… Grady loved it, I thought it was ok. I like Segovia better.
We started our morning at the main plaza – Plaza Mayor (which is the name of pretty much every main square in Spain!). It was constructed in the 1700’s by Felipe V for bull fighting… so it is HUGE. Like most public squares, it is surrounded by beautiful architecture, some political buildings, and a lot of restaurants. The giant center space is used for concerts and festivals throughout the year. The day we were there it was just full of people posing for pictures and selfies (us included!)
After the plaza, we walked around town a bit, then toured the university. It is the 4th oldest university in the world, founded by King Alfonso IX. It is behind Bologna, Oxford, and Cambridge. The library was INCREDIBLE!
Like most European cathedrals, the Salamanca cathedral was pretty impressive. What made this one stand out was that there was an old cathedral, and when they needed a newer/bigger cathedral (to accommodate all the students and faculty of the university), they left the old cathedral in tact and built the “new” cathedral right next to it rather than re-building over the old. They are connected. The old was built in the 12th – 13th centuries. The “new” cathedral was built in the 16th century … I’m not sure I would consider something built in the 1500’s “new”, but this is Europe!
Our final stop was to see an old Roman bridge. It doesn’t look like much, but this thing is OLD!!! Built sometime between 29BC (yes BEFORE CHRIST) and 79AD … that’s not very specific. I guess it’s the best they could do in determining its age.
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