Baroque star
Jason Beattie finds the ancient city that reigns in Spain
To walk across the Roman bridge towards the centre of Salamanca is to step back in time. In front of you are the domes and towers of the cathedrals and university buildings.
Below, by the banks of the River Tormes, you can see young children swimming in the shallow water and old women in black washing clothes.
Within minutes you are winding your way through narrow streets, almost every one containing some historic building or other.
There are some beautiful cities in Spain but few wear their history with such handsome pride as Salamanca.
God gave the Spanish the sun and the Salamancans gave the sun the perfect showcase with its elegant sandstone buildings.
As the evening light descends, the rays hit the yellow stones and turn them into a brilliant, warming orange.
And the perfect place to watch this free spectacle is the Plaza Mayor. You can take your Times Square in New York, St Mark’s in Venice and Trafalgar in London.
They are all fine in their own way but they are not worthy to share the catwalk with the supermodel of squares that is the Plaza Mayor.
All four sides of this baroque masterpiece are lined with cafes and restaurants.
We settled on the Cafe Novelty ( for the novelty) and then made it our home for the rest of the stay.
Each evening on our pre-lockdown break we’d take the same seats and wait for the waiter to bring along the gin and tonics to accompany the sunset.
Spanish families stroll by, taking their regular evening constitutional known as the “paseo”.
Young lovers sit on the square’s benches muttering sweet nadas in each other’s ears.
A drink in the Plaza Mayor is reason enough to visit this old university town but there is far more than just one rather special square.
A short walk will take you to the cathedrals. With a strong sense of history the Salamancans decided to keep their old Gothic cathedral when it came to building a brand new baroque one.
A single ticket gives access to both – and a vertigo-inducing walk around the roofs and bell towers – allowing you to stroll from the ornate splendour of Spain’s Golden
Age to the spiritual darkness of the Gothic era (catedral salamanca.org).
To my mind the outside of the new cathedral is more spectacular than the interior. You can spend hours looking at the carvings of saints, kings, creatures and knights around the main doorway. The more eagle-eyed visitors will also spot an astronaut among the sculptures, a joke by a mischievous artist in the 1970s.
A few minutes away lies the university buildings where you can see the ancient lecture halls and wonder how anyone managed to study when obliged to sit on such uncomfortable benches.
Stop also to admire the Casa de las Conchas (House of Shells), a building for some reason covered entirely in scallop shells.
Near the river can be found the Casa Lis, a museum dedicated to art nouveau and art deco with some beautiful stained glass windows and a decent collection of early 20th century Spanish art.
The cafe is also worth a visit and you can enjoy a quiet drink on the outdoor terraces overlooking the Tormes.
We stayed in the Parador on the opposite side of the river. The ugly exterior is worth tolerating for the amazing views of the city and the outdoor pool. These state-run hotels used to be in the exclusive price range but since the arrival of Airbnb they have become more competitive.
As a tourist destination there is no shortage of restaurants. My golden rule when travelling in Spain is to ignore the décor or location and look for where the Spanish are eating. They care more about what’s on their plate than what the furnishings are like.
We stumbled across iPan iVino on Calle Felipe Espino where they serve whatever is fresh in the market that day.
Having eaten well it was back to the Plaza Mayor for a nightcap and one more look at the finest square in all of Spain.
They are not worthy to share the catwalk with supermodel of squares