The Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Castilla y León in Salamanca was designed by Juan Navarro Baldeweg. Construction began in 1988, and the centre opened on 3 July 1992. Integrated into the historic city, it combines conference, exhibition and performance spaces. The Sala Mayor is distinguished by a canopy-like dome that appears to float above the auditorium and admits light from above. Its seating comprises 1,055 chairs and six spaces for people with reduced mobility, with smaller halls and meeting rooms elsewhere in the complex. Salamanca's congress and exhibition centre was built by Juan Navarro Baldeweg and opened in 1992, set into the slope below the old town so that it does not compete with the sandstone above it. Its auditorium seats around a thousand and does duty as the city's principal modern concert hall, taking the orchestral and operatic touring that the historic theatres cannot hold.