City Walk: Historical Buildings Walking Tour, Salamanca, Spain (2023)

The Monterrey Palace is a building in the Spanish city of Salamanca, one of the greatest exponents of the Plateresque artistic style. Built by the III Count of Monterrey, it is currently owned by the Casa de Alba, which is the owner of said county. It was a highly admired and imitated building in the 19th century, giving rise to the so-called Monterrey or Neoplateresque style, a historicism that took up the Plateresque aesthetic.

It was declared a National Historic Monument, equivalent to the current term BIC with the category of Monument, on May 6, 1929.2 Since May 2018 the building is open to tourist visits.

The Monterrey Palace was built —in the Italian Renaissance style— by Don Alonso de Zúñiga y Acevedo Fonseca, III Count of Monterrey. Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and Fray Martín de Santiago drew up the plans for the palace, and Pedro de Ibarra and Pedro de Miguel y Aguirre began construction on January 18, 1539. Since then it would become one of the most representative works of the Spanish Renaissance.

The Monterrey palace has had a notable influence on many Spanish buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the Palace of the Diputación de Palencia, the work of Jerónimo Arroyo from 1916, the Archaeological Museum of Seville by Aníbal González from 1919 or the Cavalry Academy of Valladolid by Adolfo Pierrad from 1924.

In May 2018 the palace was opened to tourist visits as a museum space. This building houses valuable works of art, as well as a varied collection of furniture, tapestries, porcelain.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Turol Jones, un artista de cojones.

The Pontifical University of Salamanca (in Spanish: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca) is a private Roman Catholic university based in Salamanca.

This Pontifical University has its origins in the unique University of Salamanca, founded in 1218 and one of the oldest institutions of all Europe and the whole world. Resulting from the resolution of the Spanish kingdom of dissolving the faculties of Theology and Canon Law at the University of Salamanca in 1854, Pope Pius XII decided to establish a new pontifical university and restore those faculties in a new institution. Additional faculties and schools were added over the years.

Olegario González de Cardedal, who received the Ratzinger Prize in 2011, teaches Dogmatic and Fundamental Theology. The University is famous thanks to its faculties of Philosophy, Psychology, Informatics and Education.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Zarateman.

The Hospital del Estudio (Hospital of Study) of the University of Salamanca, located in the city of Salamanca, is an old hospital that operated from its creation in 1413 until 1810. It currently houses the Rectorate of the University of Salamanca.

The building occupies almost the entire southern front of the Patio de Escuelas with a turn onto Calle de Libreros.

The façade is simple, with a doorway, a gate and several windows. The doorway is Plateresque and has a large semicircular arch that houses two doors with carpanel arches with the figure of Saint Thomas on the tympanum. In the upper part there are three shields: that of Castilla y León in the center and on the sides those of each of the kingdoms.

Due to the shape it has, the column that supports the arches seems to have been reused from another place, and it is to be assumed that the original, in loam stone from Villamayor and in a style more similar to Gothic, suffered damage that made the change necessary. The façade is crowned with a crest that, due to its poor condition, was extensively redone, around 1950, for the celebrations of the VII centenary of the University.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Zarateman.

Cielo de Salamanca (Sky Over Salamanca)​ is a mural painting attributed to Fernando Gallego that corresponds to the third part of the decoration of the vault of the old Library of the Major Schools of the University of Salamanca, space occupied by the current chapel of San Jerome.

The vault was painted in the 1480s. In the 18th century the other two thirds collapsed during the construction of the chapel, whose vault is four meters below the previous one, hiding the original roof. In 1901 they were rediscovered by Professor García Boiza. In the 1950s, the paintings were removed from the original vault, transferred to canvas and transferred to their current location (University Museum in the Minor Schools) for their contemplation.

This is an astrological representation intended for the teaching of Astrology, probably inspired by the chair of astrology that had recently been established (c. 1460) at the University of Salamanca, which served as support for the practice of Medicine.

The logo of Salamanca 2002 European City of Culture (and currently the logo of the Salamanca City of Culture Municipal Foundation) is inspired by this painting.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Terencio.

The Escuelas Menores (Minor Schools), is the building that housed the minor teachings (Bachelor's degree) of university studies.

The construction of this building began in 1428. The façade is very narrow and is located in a corner of the Patio de Escuelas, next to the Hospital del Estudio façade. The entrance is made up of two semicircular arches that rest on a column with a Corinthian capital. In its upper part, there is the imperial coat of arms of Carlos I. The building is organized around a one-story courtyard, whose mixtilinear arches recall those of the Casa de las Conchas; on them there is today a baroque balustrade.

It is currently used for dependencies of the University of Salamanca.

In one of the classrooms in the courtyard, the so-called "Cielo de Salamanca" is currently preserved, which is one third of an extraordinary mural painting attributed to Fernando Gallego that alludes to astronomical and astrological themes.

It dates from the end of the 15th century and was originally located in the vault of the old library (where the chapel is today) of the Escuelas Mayores building, a vault that partly collapsed and the remaining third was covered by that of the new chapel, and moved here after its discovery during construction in the mid-20th century.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and José Luis Filpo Cabana.

Palacio de Anaya (Anaya Palace) is one of the few buildings in Salamanca in neoclassical style. It owes its name to Diego de Anaya Maldonado, founder of the Colegio de San Bartolomé in 1401. Its works began in 1760, to replace the previous building of the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé, badly damaged in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Its creators were José from Hermosilla and Juan de Sagarvinaga. Its most striking elements are the façade and the imperial staircase inside the palace, where there is also an interesting bust of Miguel de Unamuno, made by Victorio Macho in 1930.

After the suppression of the university colleges, the building had various uses, including Civil Government, which is why it is currently known as a palace, although it is actually a college.

The Anaya Palace currently houses the Faculty of Philology of the University of Salamanca.

Next to the school is the Hospedería, 1715, by Joaquín Churriguera, which housed students who paid for their studies by serving other noble and wealthy students who occupied the College. Today it is used for classrooms and offices, and its old stables house the Faculty cafeteria.

The baroque church of San Sebastián, formerly the school chapel and currently the Cathedral Parish, is also attached.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Turol Jones.

The Palacio de la Salina (Salina Palace) is a building built in the Plateresque style with Italian elements, built in 1538. It has an airy façade, patio with arches, capitals and corbels of great interest. The architect was Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón.

The palace was built by Rodrigo de Messia Carrillo (or Mejía), married to Doña Mayor de Fonseca y Toledo, lords of La Guardia, for which reason it is also known as the Palace of Don Rodrigo de Messia or Fonseca. The eldest son of the couple, Gonzalo Messia Carrillo, inherited most of the family assets on August 17, 1549, but the mother wanted to bequeath to her second son, Juan Alonso de Fonseca, some assets contributed by her to the marriage and, among them, the palace (and it is quite possible that the son adopted his mother's family name for this reason). For this reason the Fonseca coat of arms appears on the façade and the palace is known as Palacio de Fonseca.

It owes its name (La Salina) to having been the headquarters of the salt tobacconist (until 1870) and its layout, open to the street, shows that it is a building built from the beginning to be public and not intended for residence, so it It can be affirmed that said Juan Alonso de Fonseca, was the concessionaire of the salt monopoly in the city. And also that the legend that links the palace to Archbishop Fonseca is not true either.

Since 1884 it has been the seat of the Provincial Council. The institution bought it in 1881.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Tamorlan.

The Torre del Clavero (Clavero Tower) is one of the most typical and well-known monuments of the city of Salamanca. It was declared a national monument on June 3, 1931.

Rest of the manor house of the clavero of the Order of Alcántara. It brings together the interest of the military fortress and the constructive beauty of the XV century. The tower is square in plan with about 28 meters high. At about 20 meters the tower acquires an octagonal shape, adorned on each side with a semi-cylindrical drum surmounted by a coat of arms.

The Clavero tower is beautiful and graceful with its lines, with its ochavas loaded with sentry boxes, its irregular holes, its cornice of small arches and modillions and its shields of the Sotomayor and Anaya family, raise the question of whether it was built by order of Don Francisco de Sotomayor, clavero of the Order of Alcántara, in 1470, or Don Fray Diego de Anaya.

Image Courtesy of Flickr and santiago lopez-pastor.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Ben Bender.

The Convento de San Esteban (Convent of St. Stephen) is a Dominican monastery situated in the Spanish city of Salamanca.

The Dominicans settled in Salamanca in about 1255, but their original monastery was demolished to construct the parish church of St. Stephen in 1524, at the initiative of Cardinal Juan Álvarez de Toledo. Construction took until 1610, and involved Martin de Santiago, Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, Juan Ribero Rada and Pedro Gutiérrez. However, the layout and design are by Juan de Álava, who began the work in 1524, as evidenced by a plan in his possession.

Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón was involved with the transepts and the dome. Although the church is considered to be an excellent example of the Plateresque style, the long period of construction explains the mixture of styles ranging from Gothic to the late Baroque, the latter not so noticeable in the architecture but very apparent in the reredos of the main altar by José de Churriguera. According to tradition, Christopher Columbus stayed in this monastery (actually in the earlier building it replaced) when he came to Salamanca to defend his idea of reaching the Indies by sailing west, against the geographers of the University.

During the Counter Reformation it was an important center for the Dominicans who founded the School of Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria.

Image Courtesy of Flickr and santiago lopez-pastor.

The Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción de Calatrava, commonly called Colegio de Calatrava (Calatrava College), is the only college founded in Salamanca by the military orders whose building still stands; belonged to the Order of Calatrava.

Established as an imperial college in 1552 by Carlos V and incorporated into the University of Salamanca in 15541; The construction of this building did not begin until 1717, by Joaquín de Churriguera who directed the works until his death in 1724. In 1750 the works resumed directed by Jerónimo García de Quiñones. He was forced to eliminate the baroque ornaments of the original project due to the prevailing neoclassical ideas at that time, especially those wanted to be imposed by Francisco Ibáñez de Corbera, rector of the school when it was consecrated in 1790. In the War of Independence the canvases disappeared of Goya that was in the altarpieces.

The façade has two bodies and is articulated by giant order pilasters and topped with a balustrade. The decorative elements that adorn it are mostly Renaissance-inspired. In the decoration, we notice truly baroque mixtilinear elements around the main doorway, in the doors of the side towers and in the moldings that surround all the windows of the façade.

Today it is the headquarters of the Casa de la Iglesia, an institution that houses the dependencies of the Diocese of Salamanca.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Pipaina.