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Secondary sourceSculpture

Statue of Hernán Cortés at the Pabellón de San Martín, Plaza Mayor, Salamanca

A stone medallion relief of Hernán Cortés on the Pabellón de San Martín in Salamanca's Plaza Mayor. It is a later memorial, not a historical source.

A later public memorial that shows how Cortés is commemorated in Spain, rather than a record from his lifetime.

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Stone medallion relief bust of a bearded man in a plumed cap and armor-like collar, set in a dark circular frame on an arched stone facade. Below it a dark plaque reads FERN CORTES. Stone arcade columns surround it.
Hernán Cortés en el Pabellón de San Martín en la Plaza Mayor de Salamanca. Photograph by Tamorlan, Wikimedia Commons.

About this source

What it is

This is a stone medallion relief bust of Hernán Cortés on an arched stone facade in the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca, Spain. The bearded man wears a plumed cap and an armor-like collar. A dark plaque below the medallion carries his name. The photograph was shared on Wikimedia Commons by a user called Tamorlan.

Why it matters

Public monuments show which figures a community chooses to honor and when. This relief is a later commemoration and does not show how Cortés actually looked. It places him among the people who are remembered in Spain's public spaces, and it invites questions about why he was chosen for that honor.

Look closer

  • What details of the bust, such as the cap and collar, suggest about the image the makers wanted to create?
  • When was this memorial made, and what might have been happening in Spain or Salamanca at that time?
  • Whose history does this monument leave out, and who might see it differently?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hernán Cortés on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of a 1524 printed book in black-letter type, framed by woodcut decorative borders, with a red handwritten signature and a note reading 'Cum Gratia, & Priuilegio' near the bottom. The title text describes Cortés's narrative to Emperor Charles V.Letter

Primary source

Letters from Hernán Cortés to Charles V

Hernán Cortés · 1520 (printed 1524)

Woodcut-style map from 1524 showing the Gulf of Mexico coastline on the left and the island city of Tenochtitlan on the right, with canals, causeways, temple precinct, and a Latin inscription at top, colored by hand.Document

Primary source

1524 Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan

Unknown engraver, published by Friedrich Peypus · 1524

Lithograph portrait of Hernán Cortés, a bearded man with shoulder-length hair wearing ornate armor, shown from the chest up in three-quarter view, with the caption HERNAN CORTÉS below on a cream paper sheet.Painting

Secondary source

Engraving of Hernán Cortés

José Cebrián García · 1870

Open bound manuscript on a green cloth, showing two pages of handwritten text in columns with small painted illustrations of fish, a shell, a crab, and shrimp. Page headed 'Libro undecimo'.Book

Secondary source

Florentine Codex

Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua collaborators · 1569

Engraved portrait print of Hernán Cortés, a man in a broad brimmed hat and fur-trimmed cloak over armor, with a caption cartouche below reading Hernan Cortes, Marques del Valle, Capitan Gral. de N. España. Handwritten numbers appear at the top corner.Painting

Secondary source

Engraving of Hernán Cortés after Juan Antonio Salvador Carmona

Antonio Carnicero Mancio, after Juan Antonio Salvador Carmona · 1805

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