Top of the World
Salamanca is one of the most evocative places on the Iberian Peninsula, where squares, palaces, bridges, sacred buildings and museums constantly remind us of the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles that embellish the Castilian city. It is a place that lives on past and present culture; also in a material sense, since cultural tourism and the local university - the oldest in Spain - represent the city's main source of income. The generosity of history, which has left so many monuments in Salamanca, can be seen when it comes to counting the cathedrals, of which there are two (per 155,000 inhabitants). The first is simply called "Catedral Vieja" - Old Cathedral - and dates back to the 14th century, while the second is the New Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Siege, known as "Catedral Nueva". The portal of the new cathedral preserves what has long been a real mystery: the sculpture of the astronaut on the north door of the cathedral. An unambiguous subject, in which it is possible to recognize the diving suit, the suit, the boots with tank soles, the tubes for vital functions. In short, an astronaut without possibility of error. If an act of vandalism had not destroyed his face in 2010, it would also be possible to appreciate his astonished look. As if that were not enough, on the same door there is also a sculpture of a gargoyle eating an ice cream. As expected, the discovery of these two sculptures - especially the first - sparked the imagination of most when it was "noticed" in the early nineties. Soon, however, they were traced back to the probable "responsible": the stonemason Miguel Romero, under the supervision of Jeronimo Garcia, who was entrusted with the restoration work in 1992. The two subjects must have been inserted as a testimony of the twentieth century in the history of man, but, as far as the sculpture of the astronaut is concerned, it seems that the intention was to reunite and re-unite Church and Science in the immensely great.
