SALAMANCA UNIVERSITY

The University of Salamanca was founded around 1220 by Alfonso IX and absorbed the University of Palencia after the union of the provinces of León and Castile, thus becoming the most important university in Spain. Its facade, sculpted in the early ^16th century, is considered the masterpiece of plateresque, a style directly inspired by goldsmiths.

Entering the lower cloister, we discover the former classrooms of the illustrious university. A spectacular stone staircase, carved with allegorical scenes, leads to the upper part of the cloister. The left wing, covered by a magnificent Mudejar coffered ceiling, houses the former library, with over 160,000 collections, manuscripts and incunabula.

With its back to the university, the school courtyard opens onto the Escuelas Menores courtyard, with its finely chiselled Renaissance portal. Lined with flamboyant Salmantine arches, the patio exudes a monastic serenity. Both inside and out, enigmatic red "V's" graffitied with bull's blood cover the noble walls: these are the "Victor Victoria" honoring doctors appointed to the university since the Middle Ages. One of the lecture halls has been converted into a university museum, allowing visitors to review the rich teachings drawn from ancient treatises on astrology, navigation, history and medicine, while taking a zodiacal journey and contemplating the ^15th-century fresco of the Salamanca sky.