The centre of the city is occupied by the fine Plaza Mayor, planned in 1720 by Don Andres de Quiñones. The square compares very favourably with the finest open spaces of the kind in Europe. It is surrounded by a colonnade of twenty-two arches on each side, above which rise three stories, to a pierced parapet with pinnacles. Archways, surmounted by an acroterium, in the centre of each side, afford communication with the adjoining streets. The arcades are adorned with medallions of Spanish worthies. The bust of Cortes is said to mark the site of the house he lodged in when a student. In this square, which is occupied by gardens and is the fashionable promenade, bull-fights on an enormous scale have been organised, and from the balconies the townsmen have more than once looked down on the death-agonies of some wretched malefactor. One side is occupied by the town hall (Ayuntamiento). Its architecture is strictly in keeping with the surrounding line of houses. The façade, supported on a gallery of five arches, is flanked by fluted columns, statues appear between the windows, and on each side of the clock-tower rising above the parapet.
This modern centre of what activity Salamanca can boast may be compared with the old resorts of the population—the Plaza de la Yerba, and the Plaza de San Boal, where Englishmen will look with interest at the palace of the Marques de Almarza, built about the end of the fifteenth century. Here lodged the Iron Duke in those days when Spain and England stood side by side for war, as they now do, and we hope may ever do, in the cause of peace.
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press
PLATE 1
