ANAYA TOWER EXHIBITION HALL

The presence of numerous turreted palaces within the walled city must have given Salamanca an appearance similar to that of many cities in Italian Tuscany. An old quote pointed out that '… Salamanca had very beautiful houses, large and strong, and with many towers …'. Although most of them have disappeared, we still have good examples of that late-medieval fortified architecture. The Torre del Aire, the Torre del Clavero, the Torre del Marqués de Villena, the Palacio de los Duques de Montellano, or the Palacio de los Abarca Alcaraz have survived the passage of centuries, but, in general, they have arrived very modified and with disparate uses.

The building where we are located was for years mistakenly called Torre de Abrantes, confusing it with the palace of the Dukes of Abrantes, which was on the other side of the street. It belonged to the lordship of the Anaya de Sancho Gómez, from which it gets the name Torre de los Anaya. Little is known about its owners and uses of the tower until the 20th century. In 1919, when it was owned by the cattle farmer Juan Sánchez, Joaquín de Vargas carried out the first known renovation of the building. In 1972, the height of the tower was increased using modern materials: a glass upper floor with a concrete cornice was built. The reconstruction was not well received in the city, so the General Directorate of Fine Arts ordered the new materials to be replaced by sandstone walls, analogous to those of the original construction.

In 1985, the building became public property, acquired by the Salamanca City Council with the financial support of the Provincial Council. Between 1987 and 1992, a major renovation of the building's interior was carried out. The tower, the granite staircase, and the courtyard were rehabilitated. The iron viewpoint that was above the door was removed, and a new building with an upper gallery facing Calle de San Pablo was constructed.

After being rehabilitated, it housed the Institute of Ibero-America and Portugal of the University of Salamanca and the headquarters of the Duques de Soria Foundation until 2006. Currently, it is primarily used as an exhibition hall, classrooms and multipurpose rooms, library, and office.

The building, as it has survived to this day, clearly reflects two distinct construction periods. On one hand, the original 15th-century edifice, which includes the tower, the courtyard, and the facade facing Calle de Jesús. On the other hand, the extension carried out at the end of the 20th century, newly built and attached to the historical structure, oriented towards Calle de San Pablo.

In the keep, the main entrance opens, with a semicircular arch and large voussoirs. Through it, one accesses the entrance hall, open to the courtyard through a large arch, and covered with a beautiful wooden ceiling (alfarje). To the left, another arch, decorated with pomegranates, which would have connected to other dependencies of the palace now disappeared. Today it provides access to the exhibition hall.

The courtyard, arcaded on three of its sides, has slender Gothic columns with capitals supporting wooden corbels. Above them rises an enclosed gallery with timber-framed walls. On the south wall, the only one without galleries, irregularly arranged Gothic windows open. The interior, although completely remodeled, has preserved some wooden ceilings, especially in the rooms facing north, towards Calle Jesús.

The mullioned window that opens on the north side of the tower was made by Joaquín de Vargas in 1919; it is surely a replica of another original window. It displays the coats of arms of Anaya and Bazán, the same ones that appear on the opposing Palace of Orellana, which suggests that at some point both palaces belonged to the same family.

The Anaya Tower has several exhibition halls dedicated to temporary shows and workshops.