Madrid: A Capital of Culture

Madrid prides itself as being a center for some of the most important museums in the world: within a few minutes of each are the Prado Museum, the Queen Sofia National Art Museum, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. These three collections of art can only be compared with the best galleries in the world. What is more, is that the temporary expositions are always updated with new things: just follow the museum schedules in order to experience some of the oldest works by the most important artists the world has ever seen.

The city has magnificent works of architecture, in the forms of palaces, churches, etc. Also, within a short distance from the capital are such sensational sites as the Escorial, Segovia, Toledo, and Ávila. The possibilities for excursions and cultural visits are endless.

The Universidad Complutense of Madrid

The Universidad Complutense of Madrid is an historic institution in Spain.

Its origins can be traced to the Middle Ages, when King Sancho IV of Castilla created the Studium Generale in Alcalá de Henares on the 20 of May in 1293. In 1499 Pope Alexander VI agreed to the peition from one of the former students, Cardinal Cisneros, to convert it into a university, which was subsequently named University Complutense, from Complutum (junction of two rivers), the Latin name of Alcalá de Henares.

By the academic year of 1509-1510 five Faculties were already established: Arts and Philosophy, Theology, Canon Law, Letters, and Medicine. About halfway through the 19th century, the university was transferred to Madrid and was located on St. Bernardo Street, where it controlled the Central University district (1836).

In 1927, construction was planned in the zone of Moncloa for a special university area, whereby the land was assigned by King Alfonso XIII for this very purpose. During this phase, the central period of the so-called Age of Silver was happening as well. In education classes were such famous names as José Ortega y Gasset, Manuel García Morente, Luis Jiménez de Asúa, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, and Blas Cabrera.

The Civil War converted the University City into the battlefront, causing the destruction of buildings and other institutes located within its vicinity, and a loss in the scientific, artistic, and bibliographic hertiage proceeding from the Universidad Complutense. The University City also lost, mostly through exile, a good part of its prestigious professors who, until then, had practiced at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

By 1954, the other Spanish universities, beginning with Salamanca, regained their full teaching capacities, whereby Madrid lost its name of the Central Univeristy, instead being renamed Complutense de Madrid. In 1970, the government undertook plans to reform Higher Education, and the university system was divided into the departments of the experimental sciences, health sciences, social sciences, and humanities, located at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, while the technical sciences were attached to other organizations such as the Army and the Ministry of Industry, and were located at the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid.

By this time also, the Somosaguas campus was created in order to accomodate the faculty of the Social Sciences and to connect with students located far from the city center. This was also a central area whereby student manifestations against the Francoist Regime where constantly being documented.

Their activity was distributed across all of the campuses, that of the City Univeristy situated in Moncloa, as well as the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, and, of course, Somosaguas.