Salamanca (Spanish: [salaˈmaŋka] ⓘ) is a municipality and city in Spain, capital of the province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León.

Raymond of Burgundy, son-in-law of King Alfonso VI of León, was in charge of repopulating the city during the Middle Ages and laying the foundations of modern-day Salamanca.

During the time when it was one of the most prestigious universities in the West, the phrase Quod natura non dat, Salmantica non præstat, What nature does not give, Salamanca does not lend, became popular.

In addition, it is considered to be a world reference in the teaching of Spanish language, since it concentrates 78% of the existing offer in its autonomous community, which represents 16% of the national market.

Another theory that can be resorted to is that of the existence of a god of the first inhabitants — nomadic shepherds and Neolithic farmers — called Helman, whose name derived from the toponym Helmantica.

This is attested by the ceramic remains found in the "San Vicente hill" and which have been ascribed to the Las Cogotas I culture of the Final Bronze Age.

In this same hill has been found what to date is considered the first human settlement of stable and continuous character, although already ascribed to the culture of the Soto de Medinilla of the first Iron Age (7th century BC).

Thus, the choice of the location of these successive settlements must have had a special influence on the fact that this area had three tesserae -formed by the erosion of the San Francisco and Santo Domingo streams-, their corresponding watercourses and especially the proximity of the Tormes River.

The Roman Salmantica was restructured, limiting its settlement to the so-called teso de las catedrales, abandoning the site of the hill of San Vicente.

Finally, the so-called Cerca Vieja, primitive wall of the city that surrounded the perimeter of the hill of San Isidro or of the cathedrals on the layout of the previous Castro.

During the Early Middle Ages, the area remained a "no man's land" and most of its population centers were destroyed by the frequent incursions (algaradas) of the Arabs.

According to the Pelagian wording of the Chronicle of Sampiro, two months after the end of the Islamic attack, Ramiro II of León ordered the advance of his army towards the banks of the Tormes, where he says that the repopulation began: Civitates desertas ibidem populavit; hee sunt: Salamantica, sedes antiqua castrorum, Letesma, Ribas, Balneos, Alphandiga, Penna et alia plurima castella, quod longum est prenotare.Deserted cities regain population; these are: Salamantica, the ancient seat of the castrum, Letesma, Ribas, Balneos, Alphandiga, Penna, and many other towns, we note that it will take too long.Everything seems to indicate that to the pre-existing population was added during this phase the emigration that came fundamentally from comarcas located to the north of the Duero; in the case of Salamanca it is undoubtedly that it is preferably emigrants arriving from the vicinity of León, according to the donation made by Ordoño III of León in the year 953 to the church of León of all the churches recently constructed in the alfoz of Salamanca.

The Serranos, linked to political and military power, occupied the western part (house of the royal representative and Alcázar) and the Franks to the east, together with the Episcopal see and the commercial center around the Azogue Viejo.

The Diocese of Salamanca was restored (the first bishop being Jerome of Périgord) and the construction of the Old Cathedral was begun, at whose side some schools were founded, which would be the seed of the future university.

In 1218, the monarch Alfonso IX of León granted privileges that attracted new settlers -among them a large Jewish community-, the city expanded its walled perimeter and granted the cathedral schools the rank of studium generale which, in 1254, would become University of Salamanca by royal decree of Alfonso X of Castile, later ratified by Pope Alexander IV, in 1255: To the University of Salamanca's teachers and schoolchildren:We consider it worthy and convenient that those who daily cultivate with lessons the field of study so that they may receive the daisy of science find us favorable and benign in their petitions so that their study may be exercised all the more freely the more they feel protected by apostolic favor.

He acceded to the throne at the age of fourteen and conquered Gibraltar in command of the militias of the Crown, in which the large presence of Salamancan contingents stood out.

During the 15th century, Salamanca was the scene of great rivalries that affected all areas of urban life, triggering the so-called War of the Bandos, which pitted two factions led by families of the nobility - the Benitinos and the Tomesinos, so called because they were grouped around the parishes of San Benito and Santo Tomé- that disputed the control of the city and that years later concluded with the signing of a Concord achieved by a brave Augustinian friar who, in time, became the patron saint of the city: Saint John of Sahagún.

The 15th century was plagued by social conflict and tensions among the urban elites (a complex development, often oversimplified as an infighting between bandos), with occasional outbursts of grave episodes of violence, conveying a chronic feeling of insecurity.

When, in 1492, they were expelled, the neighborhood was walled up and respected by the Salamancans, probably thinking of a possible return, and when it became uninhabited it was filled with rabbits, so it has been known until recently as barrio del Conejal.

During the occupation, the French built defenses and, in order to obtain materials, destroyed an important part of the Salamancan buildings, especially in the neighborhood called Caídos (demolished), where the well-known colegios mayores of the University were erected, of which no trace remains.

The battle which raged that day is famous as a defining moment in military history[16] and thirteen thousand men were killed or wounded in the space of only a few short hours.

During the rest of the 19th century the city experienced a slight recovery when it was named provincial capital and the railroad linking France with Portugal, which passed through the Meseta (Medina del Campo and Salamanca, 1877), was built.

During the devastating Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) the city quickly went over to the Nationalist side and was temporarily used as the de facto headquarters for the rebel faction.

In April 1937, the FET y de las JONS, the single party of the ensuing dictatorship, was created via a Unification Decree issued at the city upon the merging of the fascist Falange and the traditionalist carlists.

[19][20] Like much of fervently Catholic and largely rural León and Old Castile regions, Salamanca was a staunch supporter of the Nationalist side and Francisco Franco's regime for its long duration.

The part of this archive, which deals with Catalonia, as well as many valuable papers and documents of individuals and institutions not belonging to that region, was transferred to Barcelona in the spring of 2006, after great disputes between the Salamanca City Council and the Spanish government, and popular demonstrations.

The relief of the municipality is characterized by the confluence of two geological and environmental units of the southwest of the Castilian-Leonese plateau on the banks of the Tormes river.

It differs the college, with an interesting cloister, and the church, with an impressive facade of three bodies, two twin towers of 50 meters high and a huge dome.

About the time Christopher Columbus was lecturing there on his discoveries, Hernán Cortés took classes at Salamanca, but returned home in 1501 at the age of 17, without completing his course of study.

The setting provided by the city has been featured in several films, including Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Miloš Forman's Goya's Ghosts.