Complutense University of Madrid

[5] One of its alumni, Cardinal Cisneros, made extensive purchases of land and ordered the construction of many buildings, in what became the first university campus ex-novo in history: The Civitas Dei, or city of God, named after the work of Augustine of Hippo.[13] However, as the political situation began to deteriorate throughout Europe, Einstein ended up accepting a similar position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.Though they were not without their charm, the ancient buildings were not ideal as educational settings, and the early 20th century witnessed the students of the Central University attending philosophy lectures and anatomy lessons in elaborate spaces that had served as ballrooms and salons only a few decades prior.This situation changed in 1927, when by royal decree King Alfonso XIII ceded state-held lands in the proximity of the Palace of La Moncloa to establish space for the University of Madrid.The trip took them to 19 universities in the American northeast, as well as to Paris, Lyon, Oxford, Berlin, Hamburg, and numerous other European cities, all in an effort to discern the best possible building structure.The architectural tendencies of the era, however, ended up having a greater influence than the academics' visits to Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, La Sorbonne or the University of Berlin; while the final plans from this period are hardly recognizable to anyone familiar with the contemporary campus, the buildings from the era that managed to survive the design revisions, the Civil War and the Franco regime betray the period's fondness for the German Bauhaus movement.Due to its long history in the capital, the Complutense University enjoys great support from Madrid-based institutions, at a local, national and international level.The School of Communications, meanwhile, enjoys equally good relations with the press (large part of its professors being former reporters, editors, or directors of major Spanish and international newspapers).[14] Each year, the Madrid Círculo de Bellas Artes extends special invitations to the Complutense students during its series of annual conferences featuring prominent philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists.Likewise, all of the faculties have been able to benefit greatly by lectures given by some of the most illustrious figures in recent history, of all fields, from singer-songwriter and Catalan activist Joan Manuel Serrat to historian Ernst Gombrich, from writer Umberto Eco to communist politician Santiago Carrillo.Due to the costs, and the fact that university-affiliated lodging is not required, the majority of the Complutense's students live independently, either in non-affiliated dormitories or in actual apartments.

Coat of arms of the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University