A block from the cathedral is the Patio de la Escuelas, with a statute of the mystic and poet Fray Luis de León, Salamanca's most famous professor. This is the main entrance to the Universidad (University), one of the oldest in Spain - founded in 1218 as the Escuelas Salamantinas by Alfonso IX, King of León. From that moment its growth was immeasurable; with the union of León and Castile it incorporated the newcomer - the university of Palencia; in 1254, Alfonso the Wise endowed it with a law school and professorships; the following year, Pope Alexander ranked it in the same category as Oxford; Paris and Bologna.
At its peak, it enrolled 10,000 students in 25 colleges, boasted one of Europe's best faculties in astronomy - consulted by Columbus prior to his famous voyage - and the first woman professor, Beatriz de Galindo (1457-1535), who taught Queen Isabel her Latin. One of Spain's most prominent thinkers of the 20th century, the Basque Miguel Unamuno, taught classics here and served as a rector into the Civil War.
During the Peninsular War, the French demolished 20 of the colleges, but, fortunately, spared the University and it's unsurpassed Spanish Plateresque façade. Floral themes are most prevalent and there is a dominate Italian note in the sculptures. The molding and the panels include masks, fruits, children and baskets.
Inside, of most importance is the chapel, its central painting depicting the oath made by the University staff of the mystery of the immaculate Conception. The old lecture-rooms are placed around a two-story cloister, linked by gorgeously carved Renaissance staircase (one of the artistic treasures of Spain), where giant insects frolic with bishops popping out of pots. On the ground floor, the Lecture Hall of Fray Luis de León - where the benches used by the students, the dais for the graduates and the desk designated for the reader - has been perfectly preserved since the day in 1573 when the professor, in the middle of a lecture, was carted off by the Inquisition. The Paraninfo (Assembly room) houses Baroque tapestries of Bruseles art and a Carlos IV, by Goya.
Reference: Guía de hoy Salamanca, English version, © Grupo Anaya, S.A., 1991, Anaya Touring.
Salamanca: Mankind Heritage, Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Salamanca, Publisher