Salamanca

After dropping my things off in Oviedo. I went down to Salamanca with my friend Patrick. We had a nice, somewhat rainy, time in Salamanca. The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218! Yes they are getting ready to celebrate 800 years as a university. Just to put this in perspective... the University of Oviedo was founded in 1608. They will celebrate their 400th annivesary next year. The University of Utah was founded in 1850. The U will turn 400 years old in the year 2250 and will turn 800 years old in 2650! Something tells me that I will not be around for either of those anniversaries. :)

One of my favorite stories from the University of Salamanca has to do with Fray Luis de Leon. He taught at Salamanca in the 15oo's. Fray Luis got into a little trouble with the Spanish Inquistion for translating part of the Bible from Latin to Spanish (Heaven forbid!). He was in prison for four years after which he returned to teach and started the class saying "Dicébamus hesterna díe..." (As we were saying yesterday) and continued with his lecture as if nothing had happened. :) I visited the classroom where he taught (see picture below) and found the benches and desks interesting. They are very rustic and look very uncomfortable, but in the day they were considered a luxury.

The classroom where Fray Luis de Leon taught

A bibliophile's playground!

La Catedral de Salamanca

Casa de las Conchas (currently the public library)

Scattered remains of happy moments in Salamanca