Old and New Cathedral of Salamanca

This past Friday our group ventured to Salamanca for our last excursion. As we neared the city, I could see the giant Cathedral towering over the city. It was so much larger than any other cathedral I had seen in Spain so far. Our tour guide taught us that there are actually two cathedrals in Salamanca, Catedral Nueva and Catedral Vieja. The new cathedral was constructed when it was decided in the 15th century that Salamanca needed a bigger cathedral. The tower of the new cathedral is actually slightly tilted because of an earthquake in Lisbon in the 1750's. The earthquake caused major damage to the cathedral and caused some of the statues on the sides of the structure to fall off. On one side of the cathedral, a small portion around one of the doorways was reconstructed in the 1960's. In this newly built area, you can find a small astronaut floating around. The old cathedral is much smaller than the new one. The most interesting part of the old are the graves in the floor. There are hundreds of graves where many of those who died during the Black Death in Salamanca are buried. I found it a little creepy to be walking on top of hundreds of graves, especially of those killed from such a terrible disease.