Visits to historical heritage

In the company of a guide, who is a graduate of the USC, we set out  from the Santiago Alfeo College, seat of the so-called New College, promoted by a Renaissance patron, Alonso III de Fonseca. He, who was named archbishop in 1507, planned to create a university building to provide the Kingdom of Galicia with a centre of higher education, especially for Galician clergy as well as to establish education of Arts, Theology and Law. We can visit its cloister, work of key figures of the peninsular Renaissance architecture like Juan de Álava, Rodrigo Gil or Alonso de Covarrubias. In the so-called America Library, unique in the world for its thematic specialty, we find a Latin-American iconographic, humanistic and bibliographic compendium, fruit of the initiative of Gumersindo Busto. Its walls house a jewel, the Book of Hours of  Fernando I of León, dated around 1055 and considered the most ancient book of Compostela. On the other hand, the tour continues through the seat of San Xerome College which until 1651 was seat of the Hospital of Santiago in Acibechería Square. Its facade was taken to the new building, in Obradoiro square, nowadays the Rectorate.The other emblematic site is the current Faculty of Geography, History and Art History which, from 1767 with the expulsion of the Jesuits by Carlos III, becomes the location of the university of the Enlightenment. The building of the Company, the church and the library were properties allocated to the university, extending the curricula due to the inclusion of Mathematics, Experimental Physics and Medicine. In its most noble rooms, like the Auditorium, artistic project created by the painter José María Fenollera and the sculptor Rafael de la Torre Mirón, scientific and humanistic studies join in harmony. These united scenes acquire a specific subject: to exalt the role of the University as advocate of wisdom and virtue through Arts, Letters, Sciences and Philosophy, under the watchful eye of goddess Minerva.  We can also enter its Reading Room inspired in the monastic libraries, fruit of one remodelling in 1774 under the design of Miguel Ferro Caaveiro. The Church is one of the three buildings of the Company which is preserved without big changes since the times of the Jesuits, with celebrated altarpieces, work of Simón Rodríguez, Miguel de Romay or of the renowned Domingo de Andrade. Due to its position, it became University chapel, nowadays closed to worship and used as exhibition and concert room. The tour concludes with the possibility of contemplating one of the most beautiful and elevated view from the roof terrace of this building, visual symbol over the planimetry of the city and its most characteristic monuments. This living university, at the service of the university community, emerges to give birth to an alternative, complementary and essential itinerary to understand the history of Santiago de Compostela and of Galiza.

Timetables (Check availability)

SCHOOL GROUPS: Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 12:00 h (exceptional in the afternoon, subject to enquiry).

OTHER ORGANIZED GROUPS: Monday to Friday from 10:00  to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 19:00 / Saturdays from 11:00 to 14:00

INDIVIDUALS: Monday to Friday at 12:00 and at 16:30 / Saturdays at 12:00

MEETING POINT: Fonseca Palace

Prices

Individual general: 7 euros

Group general: 6 euros (Minimum 12 people, maximum 20 people)

Groups organized by the USC, senior citizens, students from other university communities and holders of the youth card: 5 euros

Institutional visits and university community members (first visit free): 3 euros

Children under 12 years-old: free

School groups: free, by appointment

Ticket information, sale and collection

Fonseca Palace

Telephone 981 563 100, extension 11099