SALAMANCA, Diocese of. - City and diocese in Spain. It has an area of 8,674 sq km with a population of 250,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed in 287 parishes served by 305 diocesan priests and 182 regulars; it has two seminaries, 19 male religious communities and 60 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 346). In 589 it was a suffragan of Merida; from 1120 to 1851 of Santiago, and since then it has been a suffragan of Valladolid. In 1851, until 1884, the see of Ciudad Rodrigo was united to it. Its patrons are Sts. John of St. Facundus and Teresa of Jesus.
It is the ancient "Salamatica" or "Salamatis," not "Elmatica" as some erroneously believed, of Roman Lusitania, today in the westernmost region of Spain, capital of the civil province of the same name and an ecclesiastical diocese.
The origin of this diocese is lost in the darkness of legend, since it cannot be admitted that it was founded by St. Secundus in the 1st century. The first bishop of whom there is trustworthy record is Eleutherius in the 6th century, who attended the well-known Third Council of Toledo of 589, where the Catholic unity of the Visigothic Kingdom was proclaimed by King Reccared and the entire episcopate. Under Saracen rule, both the city and the whole diocese must have suffered greatly; its bishops took refuge in the Asturias; but after the region was conquered by King Alfonso VI the Great in 901, the diocese was restored; nevertheless the see was not constantly occupied until the end of that same century, when King Ramiro II of Burgundy and his wife Urraca built the Cathedral (catedral vieja), later finished by their successors, which still survives with some later additions, displaying a strange mixture of Romanesque and Gothic style; like an imposing fortress, surmounted by a slender dome, it consists of three naves with as many semicircular apses. The cloister of 1170 was rebuilt and transformed in 1785; in it are found the chapel of St. Catherine, where several Compostelan councils were held; that of St. Barbara, which was the place of examinations for candidates for University degrees (and it may be said that there was the cradle of that famous center of culture); that of St. Savior or Talavera, founded and endowed by Arias Maldonado with 12 chaplaincies, in which Mass is celebrated in the Mozarabic rite; finally that of St. Bartholomew, called of Anayas after its founder Diego de Anayas, archbishop of Seville, who left there his splendid tomb. Worthy of note are the sixteenth-century paintings of the high altar, representing scenes from the life of Christ; the baptismal fonts, where King Alfonso II and other personages received the first Sacrament; the tombs of various princes and prelates. The new Cathedral was begun in 1513 by Juan Gil de Hontañón through the patronage of the Catholic sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella; part of it was opened for worship in 1560, but it was inaugurated in 1733; finally in 1762 it was consecrated by Bishop F. Francisco de San Andres. The style is decadent Gothic with additions of the Renaissance and Baroque; it is in the form of a Latin cross with five naves. The north portal (puerta de ramas or de las palmas) has a fine relief of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the statues of the apostles Peter and Paul. The bell tower is 110 m high, of the type of that of Toledo; the dome was finished in 1765. The interior is
104 m long, 49 m wide and 60 m high beneath the dome. Notable is the polychrome wooden group by Juan de Juni representing St. Anne teaching the Blessed Virgin to read. The two Cathedrals were declared a national monument in 1887 and the new one was honored with the title of Basilica by Pope Pius IX in 1854. To be admired are two artistic silver urns, the one on the Gospel side enclosing the body of St. John of St. Facundus, the one on the Epistle side the relics of St. Thomas of Villanova; most beautiful too is the Byzantine image of Our Lady of the Vega, patroness of the city, and the Christ of the legendary hero, the Cid Campeador.
Other churches are: the church of St. Martin in a transitional Romanesque style (12th century); on the north portal is the statue of St. Martin (12th century), while the south portal is of the Renaissance. The church of St. Sebastian, with a dome, was erected in 1731 by A. Churriguera. The church of the Holy Spirit was erected in 1541; that of St. Mary de la Vega in 1570, restored in the 18th century. The church of St. Thomas of Canterbury is of the 12th-15th centuries; that of Santiago preserves apses of the 12th century, the rest has been transformed; the church of the Most Holy Trinity or of St. Paul is of 1677; that of the Carmen de Abajo is of the 18th century. The church of St. Stephen, mostly called that of St. Dominic, in Gothic style, was erected between 1524-60; in the adjoining Dominican convent Christopher Columbus stayed in 1484. The church of St. Christopher of 1145, the best example of Romanesque architecture in S., has been transformed into a school. The church of St. Blaise is of 1772; the church of Sts. Julian and Basilissa, with portal and bell tower, is of the 12th century, the rest rebuilt in 1582. The church of St. Juan de Barbalos is of the 12th century with remains of a Romanesque cloister. The church of the Magdalene was rebuilt in 1776; the church of St. Mary de los Caballeros dates back to the 13th century but was transformed in the 16th century and in 1779. The chapel de la Vera Cruz was rebuilt in 1713. The chapel of St. Francis or of the Capuchins is of 1746 with a neo-classical facade. The convent of the Carmelites was founded by St. Teresa in 1570; the one called "de las Bernardas (Cistercians) de Jesus" is of 1552. The convent of the Augustinian nuns is attached to the church built by Fontana in 1636, with a dome that dominates the whole city. In the interior is preserved the painting of the Conception, a masterpiece of Ribera. The convent of St. Isabella was founded in 1433; the one called "Corpus Christi" or of St. Clare has attached a Baroque church of the 17th century.
The University of S., also called "Escuelas mayores," was founded by Alfonso IX king of León, d. 1230; Fernando II (d. 1252) granted it many privileges; new chairs were added to it by Alfonso X (d. 1284). In the 14th century it had such fame as to come immediately after that of Paris and reached its greatest flourishing in the 16th century, with 6,700 students. Christopher Columbus came to consult its professors. The numerous manuscripts and the Library rich in 80,000 vols. still attest to the ancient importance of the center of ecclesiastical culture, which some consider the fourth in world celebrity, and certainly the first in Spain. The teaching of the theologians of S. gave rise to the so-called Salmanticenses (v.). Famous masters at this University were de Vitoria, Melchior Cano, Medina, Bañez, Suárez, El Tostado.
S. had several colleges: the most famous is that of the Archbishop and "de los Irlandeses," erected in 1527, inaugurated by Philip II in 1578 for Irish students. Then there are remembered the College of Carvajal of 1602; the College of Orphans, now an asylum, is of the 16th century, like the one called "de las Josefinas." The College of St. Millán or "de los Angeles" with an attached church of the 15th century and a Baroque portal of 1635. The College of Anaya, erected between 1760-68, is occupied by the Faculties of Sciences. The College of Calatrava erected in Baroque style in 1717 by J. and A. Churriguera, but deformed in 1790. The Palace of the "Escuelas Menores" of 1533 is today occupied by the Rectorate and the Museum. On Sept. 25, 1940, the modern Pontifical University of the same city was erected in the Seminary of St. Charles or Clarecia, established in 1779 by Bishop Philip Beltran, a grandiose building, the ancient College of the Society of Jesus, founded in 1614 by King Philip III and his wife Margaret of Austria, restored in the 19th century. - See pl. CIII.
