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The city of Salamanca has a tradition of receiving visitors from all over the world for more than a thousand years. It is a city made for those dedicated to leisurely strolls, for tourists interested in the sights, and above all for students, toward whom it invariably treats with exceptional understanding, hospitality, and appreciation.

The gilded streets of its historical center, its squares, its monuments are at once a continual reminder of the past and the expression of a stunning urban culture. Located at 200 km northwest of Madrid and about 100 km from the Portuguese border, it is without question the most beautiful city of the Spanish hinterland.

The geographical region of Castille is a high plateau (from half a mile to four fifths of a mile high) brilliant with light, with broad horizons, clear fresh air, where the landscape seems drawn as though in silhouete under an intense azure sky. It represents a living museum of local customs, traditions, and values.

Castille is, moreover, the very heart of Spain. Despite the diversity of the country, with its many varieties of scenery, this wide interior landscape (the "central plateau"), is the cradle of the Spanish language, and has had a major linguistic influence on the coastal areas as well. The Castillian language is the common official language of all the autonomous regions of Spain, as it is in virtually all of Latin America. Thus, Castille is the place par excellence for studying and practicing Spanish.

Castillian culture is still one of conversation, and the traditions of informal chats in the streets has happily been maintained. Thus students from other parts of Spain, as well as from foreign countries, can find, anywhere and at any time, eager and talkative interlocutors. Like good Castillians, the inhabitants of Salamanca spend the greater part of the day out of doors. They are aware of the intellectual and artistic reputation of their city, and have long been conscious of the presence of foreign students, whom they welcome with exemplary hospitality and courtesy.