Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1904-03-03
CITY is SLOWLY DYING.
once Great salamanca Now But a
sorry Reminder of Its Former
Power aud Grandeur.

II is sad to see a grand old city sic,
and Salamanca has been slowly dying
for 300 years, writes William E. Curtis,
lin a special correspondence Of the Chi
lcago Record Herald. II was once called
the Iberian Rome -Four hundred years
ago 1t was a center Of learning and
ecclesiastical influence, second only TO
the Eternal City-"La Alma Mater de
Yirtudes, Ciencies Y Artes." the Mother
OF Virtues, Sciences and Arts-but its
population of between 100000 and 300,-
600 has been reduced TO p 900 and the
venerable university, which then had
between 1900 and $4,000 students, has
now only a few hundreds. Salamanca
once had 25 colleges, As churches, two
cathedrals, 25 monasteries and several
| hundred OF the ablest and most bigoted
and intolerant professors in the world.
II was here that the commission OF
learned pundits in 1886 denounced and
rejected the theory Of Columbus that the
earth was round and that by sailing
westward he might ultimately return to
his starting place. Here Galileo's the
cries, which are now accepted uncon-
sciously by every schoolboy, were pro-
nounced absurd and heretical, and here
sat one Of the most cruel and relentless
branches of the inquisition. II is still,
as it always was, the most conservative.
benighted city in Spain, but there is
none of greater interest to the artist,
the architect and the historian, because
Of its antiquated appearance and splen-
did old buildings. all constructed of the
same material, a peculiar sandstone
found in the vicinity, to which time and
weather have given a hue Of golden
brown. Everything is very, very old;
any building-and they are very rare
that has been erected within 400 years
is considered modern.
Salamanca was a large city at the
time Of the Romans. Hannibal made II
HIS headquarters for several months
during his Spanish campaign two cen
turtles before Christ, and its favorable
situation with reference 20 military
strategy has made il the object Of war
fare ever since II was founded. The
French plundered IT in 1918 and pulled
down one-third Of the buildings, and the
battle Of Salamanca. fought between the
duke of Wellington and Field Marshal
Marmont July %, 1912, was one Of the
greatest struggles that ever occurred be- /
tween men. There were 100 900 French
men and 10000 British and Spanish on
the other side The French were routed,
and Wellington wrote: IF we had had
an hour more daylight the whole army
would have been in our hands
The damage done by the French to
the university buildings has been re-
peated during the several revolutions |
that have occurred since, and in the |
early los, when the cortes denounced |
the monasteries, nearly all of those in |
Salamanca were looted and partially de- |
stroyed. Those which remain are re-
markable specimens of the ecclesiastical |
architecture of the fourteenth, fifteenth |
and sixteenth centuries, unsurpassed in |
all Europe; but their majestic halls and |
cloisters are either in ruins |
and abandoned or used as tenements by |
the poor families of the city. The Col
lege Of San Barthelome, one of the fin.
est, which was built in 1441, Is now used |
as residence for the governor Of the |
province. The Collegio de Mobiles Ire
landeses, which was founded by Philip /
II. in 1929 for Irish Catholic students, to
spite his sister-in-law. Queen Elizabeth,
is in pitiable condition, with only nine
Toung priests from Dublin
Imagine Harvard, Yale or the Univer-
sity of Chicago with three-fourths OF
the buildings in ruins, and you can get
/ little idea of what Salamanca is to-
lay. The Jesuit college was the largest
Ind richest, and was built in 1917 Ii
covers an area Of $1,000 square feet.
Collegio Yiejo, which was built in 1410,
Is pretty well preserved and FL Collegio
lie la Calatrava, built in 1852. is also in
,ood condition, compared with the rest
IF the buildings
The greatest signs of life In town APP
bear on Sunday, when there is a bull
light in the largest ring Of Spain, which,
holds 10000 spectators and reminds one
IF what the Coliseum might have been
n the days of the Roman empire.