Salamanca

Salamanca is in Castilla Y León in Spain. The city is about 50 miles from the Portugal border and 124 miles from Madrid. In addition to its monuments like the Casa de las Conchas, a palace from the late 15th century and Palacio de la Salina built in 1546, it is home to the University of Salamanca.

The University itself was founded by Alfonso IX de León in 1218 making it the oldest university in Spain and the 5th oldest western university. The University educated some of the most distinguished men of early times such as Diego Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the writer of Don Quixote, Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, the man who led the Spanish in the fall of the Aztec empire, and even Christopher Columbus lectured there after his discoveries.

Some of these students even established the Spanish law for life and liberty for the indigenous people in the Americas. This is notable even though the law wasn’t put into practice due to the lack of authority upon those Spaniards in the Americas, but that’s neither here nor there.

The University of Salamanca has as about 36,000 students. This student population is just below that of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The night life for the students provides the largest economic activity in the city. The city has the second highest bar to inhabitant ratio in Europe (first is Bilbao).