About this place
The Convento de San Esteban is the great Dominican monastery of Salamanca, a magnificent complex built mainly in the sixteenth century. Its most spectacular feature is the facade of its church, a towering wall of golden sandstone carved in the Plateresque style into what looks like an enormous altarpiece, or retablo, turned to face the street, crowded with sculpted figures and crowned by a relief of the stoning of Saint Stephen. Within lie a grand church, a superb carved choir and a beautiful two-storey cloister. But the monastery's greatest claim to fame is its connection to Christopher Columbus. When Columbus came to Salamanca to argue his case for sailing west to the Indies, it was the learned Dominican friars of San Esteban who studied his plan, lodged him, and crucially, lent their intellectual support, helping persuade the Catholic Monarchs to back the voyage that would change the world.
Key facts
- 16 century — The grand Dominican monastery was built mainly in the sixteenth century
- 1 facade — Its church facade is carved like a giant altarpiece in golden stone
- 1 Columbus — Its Dominican scholars studied and backed Columbus's plan to sail west
📍 Plaza del Concilio de Trento, 37001, Salamanca