Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Empire, the city was later captured by the
Romans and occupied by Moorish conquer-
ors in the early 700s. After the Christian
reconquest (R
ECONQUISTA
) of this region in
the 12th century, Salamanca underwent a
flurry of construction, including fortifica-
tions, towers, public buildings, and the first
of its many churches. The medieval cathe-
dral and its adjacent extension, completed
in the early 1500s, are the city's most nota-
ble monuments, but its greatest fame arises
from the university, founded in 1218. For
the next four centuries the University of
Salamanca ranked with Oxford, Paris, and
Bologna as one of the great institutions of
learning in all Europe. It had the special
character of serving as a channel for the sci-
entific and mathematical learning originat-
ing in the Middle East, bringing it to Western
peoples. After the expulsion of the Muslims
in 1492 and the rise of the S
PANISH
I
NQUISI
-
TION
the intellectual freedom that had char-
acterized Salamanca was steadily eroded by
censorship and narrow adherents to Chris-
tian orthodoxy.
Salamanca was awakened from two cen-
turies of torpor in 1811 when the duke of
Wellington's army clashed with the French
near the city. In the aftermath of the battle
Salamanca was brutally sacked, and many
of her architectural treasures were damaged
or leveled. A promising revival of intellec-
tual ferment and freedom occurred during
the early years of the 20th century when
M
IGUEL
DE
U
NAMUNO
, Spain's greatest phi-
losopher and rector of the university, cast
his own warm glow to match the sunset
tint of the ancient stone walls of what he
called
“Salamanca dorada”
(“golden Sala-
manca”). But the onset of the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
and Unamuno's own death brought an
end to this era. Generalísimo F
RANCISCO
F
RANCO
set up his Nationalist headquarters
at Salamanca in the early days of the war,
and until his death nearly 40 years later the
atmosphere remained oppressive. Contem-
porary Salamanca, however, shows promis-
ing signs of an enduring renaissance.
Salazar, António de Oliveira
(1889-1970)
Portuguese statesman
Originally intended for the priesthood,
Salazar instead pursued a career in law. He
received his doctorate at the University of
Coimbra in 1914 and soon joined its fac-
ulty. Having earned a reputation as an eco-
nomic theorist, he was offered the Finance
Ministry as early as 1926 but did not accept
it until 1928 with the guarantee of a free
hand in reconstructing Portugal's disor-
dered affairs. Through a combination of
brilliant improvisation and ruthless author-
itarianism he balanced the budget and made
himself Portugal's indispensable man. In
1932 the president of the republic, realizing
his own limitations, appointed Salazar
prime minister with virtually unlimited
power, a position he would hold for the
next 36 years.
A pragmatic rather than dogmatic execu-
tive who understood the limitations in
which Portugal found itself during the
1930s, Salazar combined Catholic cultural
values and socioeconomic conservatism
with the kind of nationalistic evocations
that had to take the place of vanished glory.
Although he founded the National Union
as his “official” party in 1930 and crafted a
new constitution in 1933 to enshrine his
so-called New State, the corporate models
upon which they are based fall short of full
fascism. While understanding the impor-
Search WWH ::
Custom Search