Editing University of Barcelona (section)

== History ==
[[Image:UNIVERSIDAD DE BARCELONA (14).JPG|thumb|Cloisters of the historic main building]]
[[Image:PlacaUniversitat.jpg|thumb|Historic building of the University of Barcelona, built between 1863 and 1882 by [[Elies Rogent]]<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/ca/page/386/universitat-de-barcelona.html|language=ca|title=Universitat de Barcelona|work=BarcelonaTurisme}}</ref>]]
[[Image:Vestíbul Universitat de Barcelona.jpg|thumb|Historic building of the University of Barcelona, entrance vestibule]]

[[Image:Facultat de Medicina UB.JPG|thumb|One of the buildings of the School of Medicine]]

The University was founded under the royal prerogative granted by King  [[Alfonso V of Aragon|Alfons el Magnànim]] on 3 November 1450. For forty-nine years prior to this, however, the city had a fledgling [[Medieval medicine of Western Europe|medical school]] (or ''Estudi General'', as the universities were known at that time), founded by King [[Martin of Aragon|Martí of Aragon]], but neither the ''[[Consell de Cent]]'' (Barcelona's Council of One Hundred) nor the city's other leading institutions had given it their official recognition, considering it an intrusion on their respective jurisdictions. Alfons el Magnànim’s prerogative, though, was granted at the petition of the ''Consell de Cent'', and so the council was always to consider the ''Estudi General'' created in 1450 as the city's true university, since it was very much under its control and patronage. <ref>{{cite web|url= https://web.ub.edu/en/web/la-nostra-historia/historical-university |publisher=Universitat de Barcelona|language=en|access-date=July 11, 2024 |title=Universitat històrica - Our history - UB }}</ref>

The process that culminated in the foundation of the ''Estudi General'' of Barcelona can be traced back to the end of the fourteenth century, with the opening of a number of schools under the patronage of the City Hall, the cathedral schools and the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] convent of Santa Caterina, which established itself as a major cultural centre. It was King [[Martin of Aragon|Martí the Humane]] who set in motion the process that would result in the foundation of the University of Barcelona. In his letter written 23 January 1398, and addressed to the councillors of Barcelona, he informed them that he had sought the Pope's permission to found a university in the city.

Despite the ''Consell de Cent's'' refusal to accept the concession issued by the King to found an ''Estudi General'', on 10 January 1401, Martí founded the ''Estudi General of Medicine'' in Barcelona under his royal prerogative, granting it the same privileges as those enjoyed by the [[University of Montpellier]]. In another document, signed in [[Valencia]] on 9 May 1402, King Martí sought to promote the ''Estudi General of Medicine'' with the appointment of a number of teachers of the liberal arts, without which the study of medicine was virtually useless. From that day forth, the ''Estudi'' was known as the ''Estudi of Medicine and the Arts''.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://web.ub.edu/en/web/la-nostra-historia/historical-university |publisher=Universitat de Barcelona|language=en|access-date=July 11, 2024 |title=Universitat històrica - Our history - UB }}</ref>

The prerogative granted by King Alphonse the Magnanimous in 1450, authorizing the ''Consell de Cent'' to found a university in Barcelona, was the culmination of the process initiated in 1398.

For a number of reasons, in particular the civil war that raged during the reign of [[John II of Aragon|John II]] and the subsequent conflicts involving the peasant farmers, the official ''Estudi General'' of Barcelona did not begin to develop until the reign of [[Fernando the Catholic]]; but it was under [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I]], in 1536, that the foundation stone was laid for the new university building at the top end of [[La Rambla, Barcelona|La Rambla]]. From that moment on the university began to carry out its work as normal despite financial difficulties and in-fighting between university teachers, though this was not to stop some illustrious professors from making their mark in their respective fields and creating their own schools of academic followers.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://web.ub.edu/en/web/la-nostra-historia/historical-university |publisher=Universitat de Barcelona|language=en|access-date=July 11, 2024 |title=Universitat històrica - Our history - UB }}</ref>

The 1596 Ordinances once more showed the need for reform. These followed hard on the heels of earlier Ordinances passed in 1539 and 1559, in which the competitive examination system for the appointment of professors had been introduced.

This period was brought to a close with the Decree issued on 23 October 1714, by the Royal High Commission for Justice and [[Government of Catalonia]] – created by the [[Duke of Berwick]] – ordering the immediate transfer of the Faculties of Philosophy, Law and Canon Law to [[Cervera]] as a punishment for the opposition to Bourbons’ rule. Barcelona was to keep its Faculty of Medicine and the Cordelles School of Humanities, governed by the [[Jesuits]]. Plans to open the [[University of Cervera]] did not get underway until 1715, and it did not start its academic work until 1717, as the successor to the six Catalan universities closed down by [[Philip V of Spain|Philip V]]. The first statutes of the new University of Cervera were passed in 1725.

"The University of Barcelona was closed by the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] dynasty after the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] from 1714 until 1837."<ref>Mordechai Feingold. ''Universities and Science in the Early Modern Period''. Springer, 2006. Page 273.</ref> The university was restored to Barcelona during the liberal revolution during the reign of [[Isabella II of Spain|Isabella II]]. In 1837, the University of Cervera was transferred to Barcelona, the capital of the principality. From that moment forth it was recognized as the cultural home of the four [[Catalonia]] and the [[Balearic Islands]].

On its return the University was housed initially in the Convent of Carme, which had been disestablished a few years earlier. Here the Faculties of Canon Law, Law and Theology were provisionally installed. The Faculty of Medicine took up residence in the Royal Academy of Medicine, next door to the Hospital of Santa Creu. Thus, all the Faculties were now located in just two streets – {{Not a typo|carrer}} Hospital and {{Not a typo|carrer}} del Carme.

The inadequate nature of these premises soon gave rise to the need to construct a larger home for the University, and in 1863, work began on [[Elies Rogent]]'s new building, though it would not be fully completed until 1882. Its construction was to have major repercussions for the city, since it was one of the first buildings to be raised outside the ancient city walls.

Work on the building lasted for more than twenty years, although by 1871 the first lectures were being given there. The clock and the iron bell housed in the tower in the ''Pati de Lletres''— the "Patio of the Arts"— were installed in 1881. Complementing the building work, sculptures and paintings were commissioned either directly from artists of repute or awarded in open competition.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://web.ub.edu/en/web/la-nostra-historia/historical-university |publisher=Universitat de Barcelona|language=en|access-date=July 11, 2024 |title=Universitat històrica - Our history - UB }}</ref>

Medical sciences continued to be taught at the former Hospital of Santa Creu i Sant Pau. In 1879, the Faculty of Medicine was presented with a project for a new hospital, and after many changes in the plans and suggested locations, it was eventually installed in the Hospital Clinic on the eastern side of the city's Eixample district in 1900. Today, Medicine is also taught on the [[Bellvitge]] Campus and at the [[Hospital of Sant Joan de Déu]].

The natural growth of the University of Barcelona has given rise to the need to undertake large-scale building work to meet the growing demands made by student numbers that were unthinkable in the nineteenth century. In response to this growth, the university district of [[Pedralbes]] was begun in 1952. The first building to be completed on this new city campus was the Faculty of Pharmacy in 1956, alongside the Sant Raimond de Penyafort and the Verge de [[Montserrat]] Halls of Residence.

This was followed by the Faculty of Law in 1958, the University School of Business Studies in 1961, and the Faculty of Economics between 1957 and 1968. Today this district is known as the Pedralbes Campus, while in the nineties the university added the [[Campus Mundet]], housed in some of the buildings of the [[Llars Mundet]]. In 2006, the Faculties of History and Geography and the Faculty of Philosophy were moved from the Pedralbes Campus to the historic centre of the city (Ciutat Vella district), in the El Raval neighborhood, and just a short walk from the Historic Building of the University.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://web.ub.edu/en/web/la-nostra-historia/historical-university |publisher=Universitat de Barcelona|language=en|access-date=July 11, 2024 |title=Universitat històrica - Our history - UB }}</ref>

The University of Barcelona was the only university in [[Catalonia]] until 1971, when the [[Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya]], comprising the more technical Faculties and University Schools, became an independent entity. In 1968, the [[Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona]] became the first of several new universities to be set up in Catalonia.