The Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid was ordered to be built by Philip V for the education of young nobles, placing it under the tutelage of the Jesuits. They were initially installed in a building next to the Royal Studies of the Imperial College, so that the seminarians could study there, forming a single body under a single rector. It was endowed by agreement of the Chamber of Castile on 26 September 1725 with tobacco revenues. The term Seminary to designate this institution clearly expresses its status as an educational centre for the comprehensive, not only academic, training of the students. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in the time of Charles III, the direction of the Seminary was entrusted to the sailor and mathematician Jorge Juan, who installed an astronomical observatory there. In 1785, a new study plan gave it a clear military orientation, converting the Seminary into a military academy, although it maintained its selective nature, requiring rigorous genealogical tests for admission. When the Ocaña school closed in 1786, the cadets were transferred to the Seminary, as were the students of the School of Pages, merging both institutions with the boarding school. From 1790 to 1800, the economic situation of the Seminary became increasingly critical due to the devaluation of the royal vouchers, with which it met its financial obligations, and the delay and irregularity of the arrival of the revenues from the Indies, the other source of financing. In 1807, in the face of the Napoleonic invasion, it was closed to teaching and the building was occupied by Spanish soldiers to organise the defence. In 1809, a decree by Joseph Bonaparte converted the building into a military hospital. In 1835, the Seminario de Nobles changed its name to Seminario Cristino, and the following year, in 1836, with the suppression of the privileges of the nobility, it was definitively closed, and its building was destined to house the recently transferred University of Alcalá

Collection: Texts

Chronology: XVIII

Scope: Baccalaureate, University

Link: http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/show/4476097

Resource type: Image

Format: Unknown

Source: Archivo Histórico Nacional. INSTITUCIONES DEL ANTIGUO RÉGIMEN. CORPORACIONES. Fondo Real Seminario de Nobles de Madrid. Hacienda. Patrimonio y Rentas. Rentas de Indias

Language: Spanish

Date: 1804

Owner: Álvaro Chaparro Sainz (Modernalia)

Identifier: ES.28079.AHN//UNIVERSIDADES,Car.18,N.30

Copyright: © MECD. Archivos Estatales (España)

Abstract: Elevation of the Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid II. Drawing of the main façade

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