The City of Salamanca
ecclesiastical confiscation and finally ruin. It was in 1946 that it was reformed and was used to house the Pontifical University.


Clerecía Towers

La casa de las Conchas
It is one of the most popular palaces of Salamanca and one of the best examples of Spanish Gothic civil architecture.

It was commissioned in the late 15th and early 16th century by Don Rodrigo Arias Maldonado, a relative of the Catholic Kings and Knight of the Order of Saint James. The shells are the main ornaments of the building’s facade.

One of the aspects that generates a great deal of interest is why he chose the shells as the ornamental detail. This is the reason where the name "Casa de las Conchas (shells)" comes from.


Casa de las conchas

Convento de San Esteban
The majority of this opulent building was started in the 16th Century on the orders of Cardinal Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, son of the second Duke of Alba.

Within the area of the cloisters is the Sala Profundis. This is where Christopher Columbus first expressed his idea to the Dominicans of taking a different route to reach the "Indies". The backing of the Dominicans was decisive in the Catholic Kings decision to give their approval to Columbus’s venture. Just next to the cloister is the Santa Teresa confessional. In 1571, Santa Teresa was in Salamanca and used it to make her confessions.


San Esteban

Roman Bridge
Only the arches on the city-side of the bridge are original, the rest date from the rebuilding of the bridge in the 18th century. This bridge is part of the renowned Ruta de la Plata, a route that was of major economic and strategic importance following the Roman occupation.

 
As we get to the bridge, we come across a pre-Roman carving of a boar, a sign of protection, immortalised in Lazarillo de Tormes, one of the great pieces of universal literature.


Roman Bridge

Anaya Palace
Former Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé (a university residency), founded in 1401 by Lord Diego de Anaya, and it is currently home to the Faculty of Languages. The current building is one of the few in Salamanca to be built in a neoclassical style. Construction work began in 1760, most likely the original Colegio having been destroyed or seriously damaged during the Lisbon Earthquake. It was built by José Hermosilla and Juan de Sagarvinaga. Its most distinguishing features are its facade, the cloister and the imperial stairwell inside the building where there is a bust of Miguel de Unamuno by Victorio Macho in 1930.It stopped being used as a university residency in 1798. The main facade has an immense entranceway with stairways and four pillars finished off with a pediment; at the highest part of the building is a large heraldic coat-of-arms; the ten windows of the lower floor boast a beautiful grille and there are another ten balconies on the upper floor.


Anaya Palace

Museum of Casa de Lis
The Casa Lis, an impressive modernist building with stained glass, is just one of the city’s treasures. It is home to the Art Nouveau and Art Déco Museum with an incredible collection of decorative art dating from the end of the 19th up to the early 20th century, which include the porcelain doll, bronze and marble figurine and glassware collections.


Casa Lis

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