University cities of spain as objects of the world cultural heritage

Spain takes the third place by amount of the objects included by UNESCO in the list of world cultural heritage. Among fifteen Spanish cities entering this list there are two ancient university centers -Salamanca and Alcala de Henares. Spain has rich historical and cultural university heritage. By early Modern time in the country there were more than 30 universities among which there were Salamanca University, universities of Valladolid, Alcala de Henares (Alcala), Seville, Granada, Santiago de Com-postela and others. The university founded at the beginning of the XIII century in Castilian Salamanca is included into group of the oldest European universities and represents one of the brightest symbols of the Spanish culture. The university which appeared in Alcala de Henares three centuries later than that of Salamanca became realization of the plan of the cardinal Cisneros seeking to carry out a large-scale education reform of the Spanish clergy at the beginning of the XVI century. Many of ancient Spanish universities throughout centuries became an integral part of regional and national culture. However the universities of Salamanca and Alcala de Henares won a special place in world university community. Salamanca throughout the history was the center of study which got wide popularity in Spain and abroad. Stages of university development, growth of its spiritual and material space were consistently reflected in the image of the city. University schools of sciences involved future lawyers, physicians, theologians; the opening colleges turned the academic career for poor students into reality. During the era of the Spanish Renaissance which became time of the highest blossoming of the university Salamanca with its palaces, monasteries, houses, buildings of colleges, streets and roads became a visible embodiment of university. In 1988 Salamanca was approved as object of world cultural heritage. In the application submitted in 1997 by Spain for inclusion of university and historic center of Alcala de Henares in the list of world cultural heritage it was noted that Cisneros's project on creation of university is the cornerstone of the concept of this University City. The city along with emergence of university in it found visible material lines of the university center, whose character, according to the realized plan of Cisneros, was defined by logic and features of functioning of University Corporation. Alcala became the first model of the university city of early modern times. According to the recommendation of ICOMOS the Alcala de Henares University and historical part of the city in 1998 were inscribed in the list of objects of world cultural heritage. Salamanca and Alcala as already recognized objects of world cultural heritage make, perhaps, the brightest, but not the only form of this phenomenon representing an important component of world cultural heritage.

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