This ancient uni­ver­si­ty town north-west of Madrid was first con­quered by the Carthagini­ans in the 3rd cen­tu­ry B.C. It then became a Roman set­tle­ment before being ruled by the Moors until the 11th cen­tu­ry. The uni­ver­si­ty, one of the old­est in Europe, reached its high point dur­ing Salamanca‘s gold­en age. The city‘s his­toric cen­tre has impor­tant Romanesque, Goth­ic, Moor­ish, Renais­sance and Baroque mon­u­ments. The Plaza May­or, with its gal­leries and arcades, is par­tic­u­lar­ly impres­sive.