The old-world little town of Alba de Tormes, 22km/14mi southeast of Salamanca on a hill on the right bank of the Río Tormes, is one of the most important pilgrimage centers in Spain, in which Santa Teresa of Ávila, who died here in 1582, is revered. In the 16th century Alba de Tormes had eighteen churches
, of which only four survive. In the Golden Age the town, as the seat of the Dukes of Alba, was an intellectual and political center which in its heyday had a population of more than 22,000; but when the Dukes moved their residence to Piedrahita in the 18th century Alba de Tormes declined.
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