CERRO DE SAN VICENTE

A modest Cerro de San Vicente, still standing tall between the Tormes River and Teso de las Catedrales, today strives to reclaim the piece of history that the passing years have gradually taken away and to show that there, camouflaged within the walls of its strategic location, the first Salamanca settlement emerged 2,700 years ago.

A stroll around the former Benedictine convent allows visitors to connect with the customs of those first farmers and livestock breeders of the First Iron Age (7th century BC), and with that first hectare and a half that Cristina Alario and Carlos Macarro, both city archaeologists, have unearthed after twenty-four years of excavations.

Already familiar with the Vía de la Plata, a corridor that facilitated trade, these inhabitants occupied a rugged site that still defends itself today, where it was easy to access all natural resources: water from a fordable section of the river, suitable land for agriculture, and an extensive traditional pastureland (dehesa charra) ideal for livestock.