An Astronaut at Catedral Nueva

With each European city that I visit, I am more amazed by the rich culture that overflows the seems of modern development. But no other city has enchanted me as much as Salamanca. Salamanca is the perfect blend of comfortable tradition and relaxed culture. Known for hosting the oldest university in Spain as well as a bustling campus life, Salamanca serves as a window to the past, but is full of young people. It expresses beautifully the old being enjoyed by the new.

Midnight in the Plaza Mayor hosts hundreds of college kids talking in groups or enjoying tapas and sangria at the bar. But dispersed among the college crowd are old couples strolling hand in hand through the busy square, or small children running ahead of their parents to watch a street performer's skilled ventriloquoy.

One of the most visual representations of this blending of the old and new can be found at the Catedral Nueva in center of the city. Teeming with flying buttresses and intricate carvings, the mammoth Catedral Nueva was built in the 1500s. In the 1900s workers slaved over the restoration of the building and left their own mark in the cathedral's carvings. Toward the front of the Catedral Nueva workers carved a small astronaut into the scroll work of the cathedral's pillars. Workers placed the astronaut on the pillar as a representation of the century that the restoration took place. As a symbol, the astronaut looks wildly out of place among the busts of long-forgotten saints and the crests of Spanish kings. However, it embodies the eternal spirit of past and present in Salamanca.