Salamanca is an old city having been besieged by Hannibal in the 3rd century BC. It has the third oldest continuously operating university in the world, the Universidad de Salamanca, founded in 1134. It (Salamanca) is famous for its two cathedrals, the new cathedral, Catedral Nueva, and the old cathedral Catedral Vieja de Santa María. The old cathedral was founded in the 12th century and completed in the 14th. The new cathedral was started in 1513 and completed in 1733. So one can see that stuff has been happening around here for a long time.

Another notable feature of this city is the main square, Plaza Mayor, which is completely surrounded by a single building. This is also the place we headed as our first stop after getting off the city bus that we took from the Regio into the city. However we were obviously a bit early as the square was full of delivery vehicles making their daily rounds and this not only detracted from the scenic interest of the place but also made us more than a bit nervous as we felt more like targets than pedestrians with some form of right to share the road.

A couple of points of trivia.

  • While visiting the new cathedral today I happened to hear a cathedral is a church building in which a Christian bishop has his official seat; cathedra is Latin for “chair.”

  • During a renovation of the exterior of the new cathedral in the 1990s one of the workmen added a carving of an astronaut to the stone decoration on the facade. As you might imagine that caused a bit of a stir.

The new cathedral was spectacular. Whenever I visit one of these old large religious buildings I am amazed that such colossal structures were built without the aid of any modern power tools and equipment. On this occasion we got a little glimpse of the old tools as a disassembled wooden capstan was sitting in the corner of one room. Just for Nina's benefit, a capstan is a lifting device like a primitive winch that was used before the invention of engines.