Founded in 1218, Salamanca's university is the third-oldest in Europe and the oldest in the Spanish-speaking world. The centrepiece is the Escuelas Mayores building on the Patio de Escuelas, whose façade is the most celebrated example of plateresque carving in Spain — an intricate lacework of stone medallions, heraldic devices, grotesques, and floral motifs covering every surface.
The tradition says that students who find the small frog hidden on a skull in the façade before an exam will have good luck. The carving is genuinely difficult to spot; hints are available from the street vendors outside, but finding it yourself is more satisfying.
Inside, the Biblioteca Antigua (Old Library) holds some 50,000 manuscripts and early printed books, including illuminated medieval texts. The ceiling of the lecture hall where Fray Luis de León taught — and where Miguel de Unamuno also taught centuries later — is original 15th-century work.