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The Claustro de los Reyes in the Dominican priory of San Esteban in Salamanca is a large double-storey processional cloister constructed in the 16th century in both Plateresque and Gothic styles.

The Dominican theologian and confessor to Charles V, Domingo de Soto, has this staircase built in 1553-6 to connect the two storeys of the main processional cloister in San Esteban, Salamanca. It was built by Roderigo Gil de Hontañón, and is noted for its engineering because "neither the landings nor the steps are supported by the walls, but each step rests on the one below it and they are all pressed into the stairwell".

Detail of an angel bearing a palm of victory from the enormous altar of the Angelic Doctor, St Thomas Aquinas, who can be seen in the background.

"Almighty God,
in your providence you gave Saint Thomas to your Church
as a preacher of your wisdom and a model of holiness.
By his merits and example,
may we seek you in truth
and love you above all things.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Today, 28 January, is the feast the great St Thomas Aquinas, who is sometimes called the Angelic Doctor. A good biography of the saint and his influence by Benedict XVI can be found here.

This is the altar dedicated to St Thomas in San Esteban, the Dominican priory church in Salamanca.

"The brothers ought to cultivate a genuine familiarity with [St Thomas Aquinas'] writings and thought..."

- from art.82 of the Constitutions of the Friars Preachers.

Today, 28 January, is the feast of St Thomas, and this relief sculpture of the saint is in Caleruega, Spain.