Salamanca: UNESCO World Heritage, Nature and Regional Trails
Accommodation in Salamanca
In Salamanca, cultural heritage and regional natural features meet a winter setting: cycling, hiking and skiing are activities available in the Sierra de Béjar at the nearby La Covatilla resort. The themes can be weighted differently when making your own plans; winter activities stand alongside cultural heritage, landscapes, museums, gardens and linear hiking trails.
File:Vista de Vilvestre, provincia de Salamanca, España.jpg
Photo: https://www.flickr.com/people/63684091@N00 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Winter Setting
The province of Salamanca encompasses valleys and forests as well as plains, streams and rivers. The Arribes del Duero Nature Park is one of the significant nature parks in the province of Salamanca. For travelling to Arribes del Duero, travelling by car appears to be the best option. The banks of the Tormes in Salamanca form a river landscape of high natural value.
Culture and History
The Old City of Salamanca has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. The old town of Salamanca includes significant Romanesque, Gothic, Moorish, Renaissance and Baroque monuments. In one of its classrooms, the Escuelas Menores preserves a ceiling painted by Fernando Gállego.
The Ruta Vía de la Plata runs from Seville to Gijón and through Salamanca; the province of Salamanca is part of the Ruta Vía de la Plata. The province is also part of the Camino de la Lengua Castellana. The Museo de la Industria Chacinera in Guijuelo presents the region’s ham-production tradition.
Trails and Regional Connections
The Senda del Duero is a linear hiking route 115 kilometres long. The last 10 of the Senda del Duero’s 42 stages run through the Salamanca area and lead to regional architecture and ethnography, as well as local customs, festivals and traditions. The total distance, number of stages and regional content provide different parameters for personal planning.
The regional overview of places includes Candelario, Béjar, La Hoya, Navacarros and Vallejera De Riofrío. Further destinations in the travel overview are Avila, Soria and Segovia.
Museums and Gardens
The area around Salamanca is home to the Museo de Historia de la Automoción, an automobile museum; Escuelas Menores: Cielo de Salamanca, a museum; Casa Lis, a museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco with decorative art from the period spanning the final decades of the 19th century to the Second World War; and Casa Museo Unamuno, a museum.
The Centro de Interpretación de las murallas salmantinas, Salmantica Sedes Antiqua Castrorum, presents the defensive system of the Iron Age city of Helmantiké and displays a section of the ancient city wall. The Huerto de Calixto y Melibea is a garden on the city wall below the towers of the cathedrals.
Also in the area around Salamanca are Plaza de Anaya, a garden; Campo San Francisco, a garden; Jardín de los Gozos y las Sombras, a garden; and Jesuitas Park, a park.
Ieronimus Interior Route
The Ieronimus interior route provides access to the terrace of Torre Mocha. It also provides access to Torre del Gallo and views of the New Cathedral from the inner walkway. The route leads to the Cuerpo de Campanas; from there, Salamanca can be seen in all four cardinal directions. The Ieronimus interior route presents 900 years of cathedral history and art.
To the higher-level travel overview: Castile and León.
