The University of Oñati, officially the Sancti Spiritus University, although currently without students, was the only free university in operation throughout the Basque Country from 1545 to 1901. On the initiative of the Bishop of Oñati, Rodrigo Mercado Zuazola, the work of the building, which would last ten years, began in 1542, but in 1545 the academic activity began, in the neighbouring palace of Hernani, in two fields, letters and sciences.
Zuazola was the first Renaissance patron of the Basque Country, and consequently completed the building entrusted to the architect Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón in Renaissance and Plateresque style. The sculptures and most of the works belong to the sculptor Pierre Picart, and the structure to the master of quarries Domingo Guerra. The University porch and the chapel altarpiece stand out.
In the state there were two kinds of universities, large and medium, most of which received funding from the Crown, but not from Oñate. He was middle-class and private through a foundation, providing public service. It was originally financed by the property left in the will by Zuazola, the tuition paid by the students, and the contributions of the Oñate City Council. Subsequently, due to economic difficulties, the Basque Deputies also participated in the financing.
In the course of about three hundred and fifty years of the university, the teaching of philosophy, canon, and law, specialising in civil law, prevailed. He received an average of 200/300 students a year, reaching the highest enrolment level in his history in 1832-1833, 639 students. It was attended by a large number of prominent students in administration or politics, both in the state parliament and in the Basque deputies, such as the chronicler and historian of the crown Esteban Garibai, or the Vitorian parliamentarian Pedro Egaña.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the University underwent various vicissitudes caused by war and political change, and after the loss of the Carlist Wars the Basque Country suffered two closures. The Deputies and the Oñate City Council managed to raise the question again, until in 1901 Madrid abolished the university degree. Then there were activities of lower learning in the building, but it was a reference for the holding of the Congress of Basque Studies and Euskaltzaindia in 1918, or the creation of a new University for the implementation of the MEDUO project of Mondragon Unibertsitatea in the period 1961-1997.
Its building is now the home of the International Institute for the Sociology of Law.
History
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Founded in 1540 by the Bishop of Avila, Rodrigo Sánchez Mercado under the authority of a bull of Pope Paul III, the University of the Holy Spirit was originally located in Hernani, but in 1548 moved to Oñati.[1] The University specialised in theology, law, canon law, the arts and medicine and was strictly limited to Catholics until 1869, when it was opened to all. The institution closed in 1901.[2] Since 1989, the building houses the International Institute for Sociology of Law (IISL).[3]
Building
editIn 1931 the building was declared a National Historic Monument.[4] It is one of the most remarkable Renaissance buildings of the Basque Country, and was built in the Plateresque style.[5] Construction of the building began in 1543 by the master stonemason Domingo de la Carrera and the sculptor Pierre Picart.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b "Universidad del Sancti Spiritus". Instituto Geographico Vasco. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ Douglass, William A.; et al. (2000). Basque Cultural Studies. p. 277. ISBN 978-1877802034. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ "Oñati". International Institute for Sociology of Law. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ "Edificio antigua Universidad (Hoy Instituto de Enseñanza Media)". Database of the "Patrimonio Cultural". Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture & Sport. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
- ^ DK Publishing (2009). DK Eyewitness: Northern Spain. p. 137. ISBN 9781405344005. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
External links
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