Salamanca's main square, the Plaza Mayor, is the most important public space in the historic city centre. Like a huge living room, it is a monument loved and visited by all, a gateway to the city for visitors, a place for everyone and where everyone is welcome. 250 years of history have endowed it with incalculable value and significance: art, history and beauty.

Learning Spain's history by studying the authentic medallions on its arches or sipping a drink at one of its cafés, bars and pavement terraces is all part of its appeal. The Plaza Mayor is on everyone¿s route and everyone strolls through it to see and be seen. Over the years it is and always has been the city¿s political and social centre and its quintessential meeting point. A place of meeting, encounter and welcome: in short, the finest gateway to the secrets of the city it was born in.

Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it has an outstanding architectural heritage including two cathedrals ¿ the Old Cathedral and the New Cathedral - the House of Shells, the Plaza Mayor, the Convent of San Esteban and the University¿s Escuelas Mayores. It was European Capital of Culture in 2002, and has recently been elected European Capital of Sport for 2010.