SAN ROMÁN SQUARE

With the repopulation of Salamanca, carried out by Raymond of Burgundy in 1102, the city was organized into colaciones or parishes, formed by settlers from various origins. The privileges and concessions granted by the kings of León, to encourage settlement in the lands newly incorporated south of the Duero, attracted inhabitants of very different origins. Faced with the scarcity of space within the walls, many of the newcomers were forced to establish their parishes outside the first walled enclosure. Only from 1147, with the construction of the second wall, these parishes were integrated into the so-called Cerca Nueva (New Wall).

On San Cristóbal Hill, located in the eastern part of the city, the parishes of Sancti Spíritus, San Cristóbal, Santo Tomás Cantuariense, and San Román were founded. According to the Fuero de Salamanca (Charter of Salamanca), the latter was founded in 1126. It was a modest parish, seat of the brotherhood of carders and cobblers. In 1887, due to the risk of ruin, San Román was suppressed as a parish and added to that of San Pablo. In 1918, the bishopric ceded it to the Servants of Saint Joseph, who had shortly before acquired the building of the old General Hospital of the Holy Trinity to convert it into a school.

Next to San Román was the Romanesque hermitage of Santa Marina, origin of the great Monastery of Santa Clara, founded in the 13th century by Franciscan nuns. Today, without nuns, it has become The Conventual Museum of Santa Clara.

On the large plot located on the north side of the square, were the Patio de Comedias (Courtyard of Comedies) and the Teatro Bretón (Bretón Theater). Since the 16th century, there has been evidence of the existence of the old Corral or Patio de Comedias whose income served to maintain the neighboring General Hospital of the Holy Trinity. In the 18th century, Juan de Sagarvinaga built a new theater, which was demolished in the mid-19th century due to its ruinous state. In its place, a new space designed by Tomás Cafranga was erected, which, from 1890, was named Teatro Bretón, in honor of the Salamanca musician Tomás Bretón, author of the zarzuela "La Verbena de la Paloma", born in a nearby house. The Bretón Theater closed its doors in 2004, to be demolished shortly after.

Anatomical Amphitheater
At the end of the 18th century, there were four anatomical theaters in Spain, the oldest being that of the University of Salamanca, founded in the 15th century. From 1419, the University used the church of San Nicolás —ceded by the Cathedral Chapter— as a space for anatomical dissections. However, its proximity to the Tormes River and frequent floods forced its abandonment.
In 1776, a plot of land next to the church of San Román, owned by the General Hospital, was acquired. The project and direction of the new amphitheater were carried out by Juan de Sagarvinaga. This space was active for more than one hundred years, housing not only the dissection room but also a museum with unique instruments and anatomical pieces. Among them, a mannequin for bandage practices stood out, today preserved in the Historic Building of the University. In 1904, the Faculty of Medicine moved to the Hospedería del Colegio Mayor del Arzobispo Fonseca, where a new anatomical theater was built. In 1917, the Rector of the University ceded the old amphitheater in Plaza de San Román to the Servants of Saint Joseph, who a short time before had acquired the old General Hospital of the Holy Trinity. A year later, the Bishopric also ceded the church of San Román to them.

In this place, numerous architectural elements from demolished buildings in the city were deposited, some of them of great artistic value, such as the double lintelled gallery that is now in the Plaza de San Román. The gallery comes from the courtyard of the Palace of the Count of Francos, don Francisco Ramos del Manzano, professor of law at the University and an important figure in his time, who received the title of Count of Francos from King Charles II. The palace was located on the disappeared Ramos del Manzano street (today Gran Vía), opposite Calle Varillas. This house was acquired by the Servants of Saint Joseph in 1899 to establish a school there. The project to open Gran Vía led the nuns to cede the necessary land for the layout of the new road to the City Council in 1915.

In 1916, the Servants acquired the old building of the Hospital de la Santísima Trinidad, which had been unused after its relocation to its new site. The old courtyard of the Counts of Francos' house traveled with the nuns to their new school, where it was installed inside the building, forming an elongated gallery of 16 arches. In 1977, the agreement between the Servants and Mayor Bertrán de Heredia allowed the gallery to be installed overlooking the Plaza de San Román, thus ennobling this central square of the city.

The current configuration of San Román Square dates back to 1977, the year in which significant reforms took place in this square. A house that occupied most of the space was expropriated and demolished, and the square was expanded by incorporating said plot.

In 1985, it was renovated with the creation of two levels. The higher level is at the height of the church that gives it its name and the tower of the Convent of Santa Clara, and the lower level is next to the gallery of the palace of the Count of Francos. Both spaces are connected by a staircase and a grandstand that overcome the unevenness of the terrain. Access from one space to another is also possible via a ramp.

The southern facade of the square is occupied by the remains of the buildings that were incorporated by the Servants of Saint Joseph into their school: the old General Hospital of the Holy Trinity, the remains of the Church of San Román, the Torreón of the Anatomical Amphitheater, and the arcade of the gallery of the Palace of the Count of Francos. In the lower part of this new space, some steps were built, and on the rear facade of the Servants of Saint Joseph College, the gallery from the courtyard of the Palace of the Count of Francos was installed, which until 1977 was inside the college. It is a lintelled gallery supported by 16 granite columns per floor with a double Tuscan capital and a plinth. Originally, they formed a four-sided courtyard.

Behind the gallery stands out the old Anatomical Amphitheater, known by the people of Salamanca at the time as 'El Torreón'. Its height made it stand out among the city's houses, most of which were single-story buildings. Today, it consists of a ground floor and two upper floors, entirely converted for teaching.

On the left side of the wall are the apse and the portal with a semicircular arch of the San Román parish, which in the past was a freestanding temple surrounded by a small square. In 1918, the bishopric ceded the church of San Román, which was disused and in a ruinous state, to the Servants of Saint Joseph.

The square was remodeled again in 1985 and, in 2025, a landscaped area with trees and a wooden bench has been conditioned.