Salamanca - the town made of gold stones

Main Square - Plaza Mayor

During our way to Portugal we decided to stop in Salamanca. The sightseeing was short, as it was planned only as the break in our journey.

Plaza Mayor

First of all the Main Square of Salamanca (Plaza Mayor) is one of the most magnificent squares in entire Spain. It was built in 1755 in the Baroque style. The square is enormous compared to most of the squares we've been to. You can find there plenty of restaurants and souvenir shops.

Main Square - Plaza Mayor

Casa de las Conchas

This building is famous, because its facade is decorated with more than 300 scallop shells. Thus, it is called House of Shells (Casa de las Conchas). Its also one of the best examples of 15th century civic Gothic with a significant Italian Renaissance influence. The shells comes from a sing of Order of Santiago, to which the first owner of this building belonged. 

House of Shells

Inside you can find a lion monument on the patio. Opposite to the House of Shells you can see a massive Baroque church.

Catedral Nueva

The built of the Cathedral of Salamanca (Catedral Nueva) was started in 1513 and it was lasting till by the end of XVI century. Existing cathedral replaced old one, which became too small for the city. Inside you can still find a nave which belonged to the ground plan o original Romanesque cathedral built in 1150. The cathedral is equipped with plenty of medallions and sculpture, which were introduced by Renaissance wave in architecture.

Cathedral of Salamanca

The magic of stone:

All main buildings are made of a stone rich in an iron oxide, which is very frequent in this region. This material is easy to work with, which makes it comfortably for builders and artists. Therefore, it was chosen as a building material not only for cathedral, churches and university, but also for each kind of ornaments. When the rays of the setting sun reflects the stone turns to pure gold, which you can see on the photos placed above.

Furthermore, you may also like:

• buildings of University of Salamanca
• museum of Salamanca
• Roman Bridge
• St. James Church
• St. Sebastian Church
• St. Martin Church
• Clavero Tower
• Salina Palace
• Orellana Palace

Map:

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