Palacio Castellano, Salamanca, 6th May 2002
A rather chaotic start to the day: several groups were leaving, so they were all down together for an early breakfast and we had to share tables – not at all a British thing to do.
We drove to Ciudad Rodrigo through a changing landscape of flat arable land with brick-red soil merging in the west into pasture, holm oaks, bulls and sheep. Heavy lorry traffic rumbled to and from Portugal – a new road was being built to cope with it.
At Martin de Yeltes young storks begged noisily for food in a nest high up on the church gable – sparrows nested in the stork’s nest. On the square, the Café Bar La Fragua and a solitary stall waited for customers.
Ciudad Rodrigo is close to the border with Portugal, at the foot of the Sierra de Gata Mountains. The old town of mellow stone sits within 12th century walls, from which we looked west towards Portugal and east back deep into Spain. Wellington besieged the city in January 1812 and it fell on the 19th-20th. Strategically, the fall of the fortress opened the northern gateway into French-dominated Spain from British-held Portugal– it was a key battle in the Peninsular War. The sun cast deep shadows in the arcades round the Plaza del Buen Alcalde and made abstract patterns from the pollarded plane trees.
The Casa de los Vazquez was built in the 16th century by Francisco Vazquez. The house was inherited by Maria de la Salud Manuel Sanchez-Arjona in 1922; and they remodelled the interior into a rich celebration of Spanishness, all stained glass, decorative tiles, carved wood and sinuous iron work. In 1944 they sold it to the government and it’s now the post office – there are few more exotic places to buy a stamp.