Ruta de la Plata

The origins of this city go all the way back to the last Celtic immigration. Few traces of these inhabitants remain. A beautiful berraco (primitive animal figure) is still conserved at the foot of the Roman Bridge.

Romanization came at the hands of Hannibal, the Carthaginian general and Helmantica was created, which was then considered a polis megale and not a colony. The Roman Bridge dates from then; this enabled the Via de la Plata to cross the River Tormes on its way north.

Later, the Alans arrived and then the Goths, followed by the Arabs in 715. From then on, the battles between Moors and Christians did not cease until the times of the Repoblación (Resettlement) in 1102 at the hands of Don Raimundo de Borgoña and Doña Urraca. Franks, Serranos, Castillians, Portuguese, Bregancianos, Toreses, Mozarabs, Jews... a growing city with an important date: 1218, the year in which Alfonso IX founded the Estudio General.

Since then, the University of Salamanca and the city have grown hand in hand, reaching their high point in the 16th century, when the University of Salamanca acted as a reference in Europe and for the foundations of the New World. The artists, thinkers, humanists and scientists that have passed through it have left their experience and their valour guarded inside its monuments and in some of its corners for all who wish to discover them.