A canal Sam renovated in Spain (9)

I believe the answer is:

salamanca

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'spain' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'a canal sam renovated' is the wordplay.
'renovated' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'canal'+'sam'='acanalsam'
'acanalsam' is an anagram of 'SALAMANCA'.

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for salamanca that I've seen before include "Spanish city" , "City of western Spain" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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