University of Salamanca

FOUNDED IN 1218
Alfonso IX of León wanted to have higher education in his kingdom and therefore created the 'scholas Salmanticae' in 1218, the seed of the current University of Salamanca, which celebrates more than 800 years of uninterrupted history creating, promoting, and disseminating knowledge.

Alfonso IX was an enlightened man, ahead of his time, not only for having created the University of Salamanca, but also for other actions such as establishing the first Cortes that allowed the participation of various sectors of the population in addition to the usual nobles.

This first Study had, according to the decree of 1254, one master in laws, another in decrees, two in decretals, two in logic, two in grammar, two in physics or medicine, one in organ, an apothecary, a librarian, and two conservators.

Thus, the University of Salamanca became, along with Paris, Oxford, and Bologna, one of the first European universities and, today, it is the only Spanish one that has maintained its activity throughout the centuries.

From the 13th to the 20th Century
In the year 1218, King Alfonso IX of León founded the University of Salamanca, which is considered the oldest of the existing Hispanic universities. In 1254, King Alfonso X established the organizational regulations and financial endowments, and in 1255, Alexander IV published the pontifical bulls recognizing the universal validity of the degrees granted by it and granted it the privilege of having its own seal.

The University of Salamanca would experience an unprecedented period of expansion with the creation of the first American universities, which from 1551 onwards began to be founded following the path of the Salmantine one by using its foundational charters as a model. More than 70% of the universities created in the 16th and 17th centuries today consider the University of Salamanca their 'alma mater'. During this period, Salamanca's prestige attracted a confluence of students from all over the peninsular sphere, and even Europeans and Americans.

Advancing through the centuries, it would be the Public Instruction Law of 1857 (Ley Moyano) that would clarify the situation of the University of Salamanca and general education in the country within the new liberal and centralist regime. With it, it was reduced to the faculties of Law, Theology (definitively suppressed in 1868), and Philosophy and Letters. The traditional hegemonic role of the University of Salamanca, like that of the other “major” ones (Valladolid and Alcalá), shifted to Madrid, as the central district. Just one year later, the Provincial Council and the City Council came to the institution's aid by financing, as free faculties, the teachings of Medicine and Sciences. In 1904, during Miguel de Unamuno's rectorship, its state funding was secured.

In July 1943, within the framework of a new political ordering, the University Planning Law for all of Spain was promulgated. Administrative rigidity, political control, and hierarchy constituted the norm. And within the framework of the accelerated social transformations of the sixties, the Villar Palasí Law (1970) granted certain autonomy to universities in matters of teaching and research.

The approval and publication in 1983 of the Organic Law of University Reform (LRU) put an end to the remnants of the nineteenth-century liberal model and initiated a new stage of broad university autonomy and dizzying transformations in all areas. Later, the Organic Law of Universities (2001) would regulate its operation.

Regarding the number of students, the University has gone through different stages. At the end of the 14th century, the institution had just over 500 enrolled students, increasing in the following century to 2,500 and over 6,500 in the 1580s, then decreasing again in the 18th century to 2,000 students. In the mid-1980s, over 20,000 students were enrolled, and by the 90s, the figure reached 30,000, remaining stable to the present day.

Art and Traditions
The University of Salamanca boasts a significant material heritage in the form of historic buildings and emblematic spaces that are still active and receive hundreds of visitors every day, either because they wish to appreciate their artistic or historical value, or because they need to carry out some academic activity within them.

Particularly noteworthy is the Historic Building of Escuelas Mayores with its Plateresque facade, and inside, the General Historic Library with 2,774 manuscripts, 483 incunabula, and approximately 62,000 printed volumes from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

A must-visit is also the Patio de Escuelas Menores, which houses in one of its rooms the famous painting 'Cielo de Salamanca' (Sky of Salamanca), a work attributed to Fernando Gallego that depicts astronomical and astrological themes.

These are works of art and reflections of the institution's history. A history full of traditions, including, for example, the traditional investiture ceremonies of Honoris Causa doctors with their traditional and colorful procession of robed figures, the celebration of the patron saint Saint Thomas Aquinas, or the solemn opening ceremonies of the academic year in which the rector reviews the main challenges the institution faces each year.