Explore Salamanca

The Plaza Mayor is Salamanca's main square, built between 1729 and 1755 in Baroque style to designs by the Churriguera family and used for bullfights until the mid-19th century. Arcades run round all four sides of the sandstone square, with the Town Hall on the north side, and the streets of the old town lead off from its corners.

The Monterrey Palace is a Renaissance palace in Salamanca begun in 1539 for the third Count of Monterrey to plans by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón; only one wing of the intended building was finished. It belongs to the House of Alba and opened to visitors in 2018, with furniture, tapestries and paintings from the ducal collections.

The Casa de las Conchas is a late Gothic town palace in Salamanca, built between 1493 and 1517 for Rodrigo Arias Maldonado, a knight of the Order of Santiago. Its façade is set with more than 300 carved scallop shells, the emblem of the order. The building houses the city's public library, and visitors can enter its arcaded courtyard.

The Convento de San Esteban is the Dominican friary of Salamanca, rebuilt from 1524 to plans by Juan de Álava and finished in 1610. Its church front is carved like a stone altarpiece in the Plateresque style. Visitors see the church with José Benito de Churriguera's Baroque high altar, the Cloister of the Kings, the chapter houses and a museum.

The New Cathedral of Salamanca was built between 1513 and 1733 next to the older Romanesque cathedral, which was kept, and mixes late Gothic, Plateresque and Baroque work. Juan Gil de Hontañón and his son Rodrigo led the early building; the bell tower is 92 metres tall, and one route covers both cathedrals and the cloister.

The Old Cathedral of Salamanca is a Romanesque and early Gothic cathedral begun in the first half of the 12th century under Bishop Jerome of Périgord and finished in the 14th. Its scaled dome over the crossing is called the Torre del Gallo, and the apse holds a 15th-century altarpiece of 53 panels by Dello Delli and his brothers below a fresco of the Last Judgement.

Casa Lis is a modernista mansion built on Salamanca's old city wall for the tanner Miguel de Lis, designed by Joaquín de Vargas and completed in 1905–1906. Its south front facing the Tormes is a wall of iron and stained glass. It houses the Museo Art Nouveau y Art Déco, with glass, chryselephantine figures, bronzes and dolls.

The Roman Bridge crosses the Tormes on the south side of Salamanca and carried the Vía de la Plata, the Roman road between Mérida and Astorga. Built in the 1st century, it was rebuilt several times; the arches nearest the city keep most of the Roman masonry. It has been closed to traffic since the 1970s and is now a footbridge.