Universidad de Salamanca (University of Salamanca), Salamanca (must see)

In his short play, the Cave of Salamanca (La Cueva de Salamanca), Miguel de Cervantes, an alumnus of the University of Salamanca, tells a comical story of the Dark Arts taught in the caves around the city. Seriously, Salamanca has been a center of learning since 1218, when King Alfonso IX founded the University of Salamanca.

Pope Alexander IV saw it as one of the four largest universities in the world, alongside those of Oxford, Paris, and Bologna. Its famous professors have included Luis de Leon, Beatriz Galindo, Melchor Cano, Francisco de Vitoria, and Miguel de Unamuno. Miguel de Cervantes, Hernando Cortes, and Christopher Columbus were among the alumni.

Some university facilities are found on the outskirts of the city. University headquarters are located among the historic buildings in the center of town in the Friar Luis de Leon Square (Plaza de Fray Luis de Leon). Student cafeterias, libraries, bookshops, theatres, and student endeavors create a lively near-spontaneous ambiance.

The widely dispersed University of Salamanca is composed of nine teaching and administrative campuses. The campuses are located in Avila, Zamora, Bejar, and Salamanca. The educational centers are housed in six campuses: Historical, Sciences, Campus of Canalejas, Campus Miguel de Unamuno (Health/law), City Garden, and Villa Mayor.

The main building of the University of Salamanca, built from 1415 to 1433, has an elegant Plateresque west facade facing the New Cathedral of Salamanca (1513). Adjoining University buildings include the old residence and library of scholar and writer Miguel de Unamuno, a rector of the University who died in 1936.

South of the New Cathedral is the Neoclassical Anaya College (Colegio de Anaya). The Fonseca College (Colegio de Fonseca), also known as the College of the Irish (1527), was ceded to the Irish to be an Irish seminary after the Peninsular War in 1814. The faculty of Law adjoins the complex. Three residential colleges were built in the 1950s.