CHURCH OF SAINT THOMAS OF CANTERBURY

Although the origins of Salamanca date back to the 8th century BC, it can be considered that it was in the 12th century, with the repopulation carried out by Raymond of Burgundy in 1102, when Salamanca was reborn as a city. The privileges and concessions granted by the kings of León to encourage the repopulation of the newly incorporated lands south of the Duero managed to attract people of very diverse origins. Castilians, Tordesillans, Portuguese, and Braganzans settled outside the first walled enclosure and, only when the second wall was erected, from 1147 onwards, would they be included within the city's new defensive perimeter.

The church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury was erected in the eastern part of the medieval city. It was built in the territory of the Portuguese settlers, very close to the wall and the gate it was named after. It was built in honor of Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered in 1170 for opposing King Henry II of England's attempts to control the church. Thomas Becket was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1174, and his cult quickly spread throughout Europe. The historian Villar y Macías was the first to state, without citing the source, that the church was founded in 1175 by the English brothers Ricardo and Randulfo, then masters of the Cathedral School of Salamanca, making it one of the first foundations dedicated to the saint in all of Europe.

The church was restored in the 20th century with the aim of restoring its original appearance. On the exterior, the large window opened in the 18th century in the central apse was removed, and the windows of the lateral apses, which had been bricked up, were opened. Inside, the 18th-century false brick vault was replaced by the current wooden roof, and the baroque altarpieces that concealed the Romanesque apses were removed.

In 2023, the Diocese of Salamanca ceded this temple to the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (Anglican Communion).

Considering its structural characteristics, the church appears to have been built between the late 12th century and the first third of the 13th century. As is common in other Romanesque churches in Salamanca, there is a clear difference between the apse, in Romanesque style, and the rest of the temple, already Gothic. This distinction suggests that the building was erected in at least two well-differentiated construction phases.

It has a Latin cross plan, with an apse composed of three staggered apses and a single nave preceded by a wide transept. The bell tower, located at the foot of the church, was added in the 16th century. The existence of three apses and a transept suggests that the original project envisioned a three-nave church which, possibly due to lack of economic resources, was eventually reduced to a single one. The main doorways open on the north and west sides.

The temple is built entirely of sandstone ashlar, in which nearly 700 stonemason marks have been identified. After the Old Cathedral, its apse is one of the most beautiful preserved among the Romanesque churches of the city. The central apse stands out, taller and wider than the lateral ones. It is articulated vertically into three sections by buttresses and horizontally into three levels separated by imposts. In each apse, a splayed window opens with semicircular arches supported by columns with capitals decorated with vegetal motifs. All three are topped by a cornice adorned with sculpted corbels, featuring human and animal figures. Additionally, there are several blind windows: in one of them, a highly eroded head is visible, while two others, located on the north and south walls of the transept, house circles with solar rays.

In the interior, the apsidal sections are covered with quarter-sphere vaults, while the presbyteries and the transept arms feature barrel vaults. Over the transept, an Aquitaine-type dome vault was built, formed by eight ribs and infilling arranged in concentric circular courses. These ribs rest on four corbels decorated with schematic mascarons with large almond-shaped eyes, in which some authors have seen a symbolic representation of the four elements of nature: earth, fire, water, and air.

The church consists of a single nave with a wooden roof. The hypothesis that it was originally planned with three naves is reinforced by the presence of the three apses and the transept, although a simpler solution was ultimately chosen.

The ornamentation is mainly concentrated on the capitals, decorated with vegetal motifs. Only one of them is historiated and depicts the struggle between two knights, a scene that probably alludes to the confrontation between Muslims and Christians, a theme also found on one of the capitals in the transept of the Old Cathedral. Additionally, the impost blocks stand out, decorated with palmettes, zigzag patterns, checkerboard motifs, and undulating vegetal stems.

The bell tower, located at the foot of the nave, was erected in the 16th century. By the mid-18th century, it was threatening ruin, so it had to be rebuilt, at which point the choir was installed inside. From the bell tower, a privileged panoramic view of some of the city's most prominent monuments can be obtained, such as the Colegio de Calatrava, San Esteban, or the Cathedral.