Über diesen Ort
Just across from San Esteban stands the Convento de las Dueñas, a convent of Dominican nuns whose modest exterior hides one of the most extraordinary and unsettling treasures in Salamanca: its cloister. Built in the sixteenth century, the cloister is unusual in being irregular, an off-kilter pentagon rather than a neat square, which gives it a strange, disorienting beauty. But it is the carving that astonishes. The capitals atop its columns, especially on the upper floor, swarm with a riot of bizarre, grotesque and even nightmarish figures: monsters, demons, skulls, screaming faces, mythical beasts and tormented human forms, carved with wild imagination. They are said to have fascinated and disturbed the great writer and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, who lived in Salamanca. The nuns of the convent are also famous for making and selling delicious almond pastries, so a visit can be sweet as well as strange.
Wissenswertes
- 16 century — The convent's remarkable cloister was built in the sixteenth century
- 1 cloister — Its irregular pentagonal cloister is carved with grotesque figures
- 1 pastries — The nuns are famous for the almond pastries they make and sell
📍 Calle San Pablo 39, 37008, Salamanca