Salamanca
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Old City Of Salamanca, Inscribed 1988), Home To One Of The Oldest Universities In Europe, Founded 1218, And Built Of Villamayor Sandstone · Salamanca, Castile and Leon
A university city built almost entirely of a sandstone that holds the light, which is why it is called the golden city and why the hour before sunset is not a cliche here but the reason to time a visit. The university was founded in 1218 and is one of the oldest in Europe, still running, and it set the character: a small city with a very large student population, cheap bars, and a Plaza Mayor that is widely held to be the finest in Spain, enclosed on all four sides and used as a living room rather than a monument. There are two cathedrals side by side, an old Romanesque one and a new Gothic one begun when the old was thought too small, and they share a wall. The university facade is a wall of carved stone with a frog somewhere in it that students are supposed to find. It is compact, walkable in an afternoon, and best over two days with an evening in the plaza, which is where the whole city goes and where it is obvious why people who study here for a year tend to come back for the rest of their lives.
Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Castile and Leon, 37002, Spain
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED, and the city has none: the Plaza Mayor and the streets are public, and the plaza is floodlit at night. What has hours are the monuments, and the structural fact is that SEVERAL TAKE A LONG MIDDAY BREAK and the cathedrals restrict sightseeing during services with a shorter Sunday. The IERONIMUS tower route keeps its own hours and closes in bad weather. The university building closes on some Mondays. Confirm the midday closures.