He finally went to Salamanca

Updated 9/9/2026

Salamanca, 8/8/2026 - 8/11/2026

If the route from Burgos to León was largely featureless, the ride from León to Salamance was even more so. Fields as far as the eye can see in all directions, broken up by the occasional tree, shrub, or village. This time I opted for the highway.

The city seemed totally dead when I got to the apartment (a nice spacious studio with air conditioning, mmm); turns out I was just outside of the area where the cathedrals and university intersect - that's where all the people were. Cool with me, made for a quiet stay. Here there are a lot more foreigners, I guess because of the university (even though it's summer and the students aren't here).

El Plaza Mayor — Plaza Mayor during golden hour. There's a reason every photographer ever talks about shooting at this time (an hour after sunrise or before sunset). Salamanca helps matters greatly with its ubiquitous sandstone architecture.

View of Salamanca from the Catedral — View of the city from up high in the cathedral's bell tower.

Part of the Universidad de Salamanca — Salamanca's university.

Epic entryway at the Universidad de Salamanca — If this doesn't inspire you to study hard you should go get a job.

Another epic entryway at the Universidad de Salamanca — In comparison, Harvard has a few statues and some quaint English-style architecture.

Museo de Salamanca

By the time I had lunch, got settled, and sat down to plan my itinerary it was around 5:30pm. I noted the museum was open until 8pm so I jumped up off the couch and made my way there. They have a decent little collection of paintings, many of them on loan (not sure if it's temporary or permanent) from the Prado and the Reina Sofia.

Cristo Muerto con la Virgen, la Magdalena y los Santos by Ambrogio — *Cristo Muerto con la Virgen, la Magdalena y los Santos* attributed to Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, late 1500s.

Viejo Bebedor by March — *Old Drinker* by Esteban March, 1600s.

San Nicolas Albergato by Cmailo — *San Nicoloas* by Francisco Camilo, mid 1600s. His hands make me think he's casting a spell. Careful, Nick - that's a good way to get excommunicated, or even killed!

Santa Rosa de Viterbo by Gomez — *Santa Rosa de Viterbo* by Sebastián Gómez, 1699.

Inmaculada, anonymous — *Inmaculada* by an anonymous Spaniard, 1700s.

El Hombre de Paraguas by Carnero Martín — *El Hombre de Paraguas* by Antonio Carnero Martín, 1883.

A las Doce by Valentín de Zubiaurre y Aguirrezábal — *A las Doce* by Valentín de Zubiaurre y Aguirrezábal, 1907.

Hombre de Castilla by Maeztu y Whitney — *Hombre de Castilla* by Gustavo Maeztu y Whitney, 1917 - 1918.

Retrato de D. Tomás Bretón Hernández by Vivó Tarín — *Portrait of D. Tomás Bretón Hernández* by Eugenio Vivó Tarín, 1922.

Gatas by María Teresa Gómez Berrocal — *Gatas* by Eugenio María Teresa Gómez Berrocal, late 1900s. What's going on here? The patches of color almost look like tiles, and the color is great. Nice!

Casas de Alba de Tormes by Martínez Novillo — *Casas de Alba de Tormes* by Cirilo Martínez Novillo, 1962 (?). Another one that's at the edge of being too abstract for me, but look at how he captured the light!

Palacio Monterrey

This is one of those preserved rich person's houses which seem like maybe nobody in the family wants to live there anymore so they turn it into a museum for the hoi polloi to see how the rich used to live. There are decent views from the tower and a few decent paintings, but mostly it's old/antique furniture and textiles.

Moses with the Ten Commandments by anonymous Italian — *Moses with the Ten Commandments* by an anonymous Italian, 1700s.

St. Jerome in Prayer by Cabezalero — *St. Jerome in Prayer* by Juan Martím Cabezalero, mid 1600s. This beauty was hidden down in the servant's quarters! Talk about no appreciation for art. The angle was the only way I could shoot it without horrible highlights.

Casa Lis

A museum of mostly art deco, mostly decorative arts (statuettes, glassware, dolls, etc.) Your mother or grandmother may have had her house filled with stuff like this... if you're into that, this is the place for you. Given it was a two-for-one with the Palacio Monterrey I'm not bitter but in hindsight I would have skipped both. That said there are a couple nice paintings, one of them pretty obviously inspired by Degas.

This is another place that prohibits photography... my contempt for this practice knows no bounds. I also jaywalk, among other rule-flaunting, when the rules are patently ridiculous.

Ceiling in Casa Lis — This is pretty cool. Why would you *not* want people posting this on their socials?

Dolls in Casa Lis — Because the rest of it is stuff like this. Pongos, as in ¿Donde lo pongo? (Where do I put this?).

Desnudo by Messés — *Desnudo* by Federico Beltrán Messés, 1839.

Bailarinas by Ribas Rius — *Bailarinas* by Ramón Ribas Rius, mid 1900s. I don't *think* it's a copy of any of Degas' works, but Sr. Ribas Rius definitely wears his inspirations on his sleeve. That said it's very good!

The Cathedrals (new and old)

There are two cathedrals here, connected such that you can't get to the old one with passing through the new. The new cathedral has a few really good, actually new paintings by contemporary artists, that manage to evoke the classic renaissance aesthetic (poses, etc.), are masterfully drawn and painted, but have thoroughly modern color schemes, compositions, and subject matter. Really cool!

Salamanca Cathedral interior organ details

Salamanca Cathedral retablo — Pretty epic retablo... if only I shot it with a real camera.

Painting 1 by a new artists in Salamanca Cathedral — One of the contemporary paintings. Yeah the message and iconography are painfully obvious, but give the church credit for commissioning new work, and the artists for harking back to the classics.

Painting 2 by a new artists in Salamanca Cathedral — Ditto, but everything about this one is better: a little less obvious, better painted, and the artist introduced some collage elements that are kind of nice.

Painting 3 by a new artists in Salamanca Cathedral — Then there's this guy, where to begin? The renaissance references are everywhere but in a contemporary context: take your pick of last judgement paintings, add some Hieronymus Bosch except without the otherworldly demons (as the artist depicts, we already have enough hell right here on Earth). Maybe a dash of Veronese, and season with painterly technique that would make any late 19th century figurative painter proud, or envious.

They can't make the walk with Jesus / what would Jesus do? message any more obvious. Too bad more so-called Christians don't actually follow through on their professed beliefs... but that's a story as old as religion itself, unfortunately.

Left detail of painting 3 by a new artists in Salamanca Cathedral — Yep, I like this one enough to include closeups.

Center detail of painting 3 by a new artists in Salamanca Cathedral

Right detail of painting 3 by a new artists in Salamanca Cathedral

Ieronimous (the cathedral bell tower)

I'm sure there's a reason it's so named but I'm completely ignorant of it. Up top you get nice and close to some of the cathedral's architectural details, and have some decent views of the city and surrounding landscape, such as it is (apologies to Salamanca province for the not-even-faint praise).

Salamanca skyline from Ieronimous, center

Salamanca skyline from Ieronimous, right

Convento de San Esteban

A Dominican monastery that used (continues?) to house about 180 monks at a time. A pretty elaborate place for just 180 dudes! Some of the exhibits inside reference Spain's exploration/conquest of the new world, and there's a lot of posturing with regards respecting the rights of the natives. Maybe the Dominicans really believed and practiced this... but the rest of their countrymen didn't.

Facade closeup of the Convento de San Esteban — Basically any older building in Salamanca is decorated this elaborately.

Cloister inside the Convento de San Esteban

Doorway decorations in the Convento de San Esteban

Column sculpture in the Convento de San Esteban

Altar inside the Convento de San Esteban

Another altar inside the Convento de San Esteban

Mural inside the Convento de San Esteban — This is one of the main attractions. Not bad!