Old City of Salamanca
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How it came to be
Salamanca lies northwest of Madrid on the River Tormes. By the 3rd century BC a town had formed on the hill where the cathedrals now stand, and in 220 BC Hannibal, advancing through Iberia, besieged and took it. Under Rome the Vía de la Plata ran through the town, and from the 1st century a Roman bridge crossed the river.
After the conquest of Toledo in 1085, Raymond of Burgundy led settlers of many origins into the town in 1102. The diocese was restored, work began on the Old Cathedral, and schools beside it became the seed of the university. In 1218 Alfonso IX of León made the schools a studium generale, and in 1254 a royal decree of Alfonso X of Castile made it a university. In 1492 Antonio de Nebrija published the first grammar of the Castilian language.
The New Cathedral was begun in 1513 and took until 1733. Construction of the Baroque Plaza Mayor started in 1729. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 damaged many monuments, which the prosperous city then restored. The Old City was inscribed in 1988.
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