Baeza, surrounded by numerous hills and olive groves, is one of Spain’s most well-preserved ancient places. Today, this is a small provincial city where a nice atmosphere of constant siesta prevails. However, this hasn’t always been the case. In the remote past, Baeza was an important social, cultural and industrial centre of Andalusia, which directly affected its active development.

One day, Baeza residents, bestowed with great intellect and broad open-mindedness, decided to create the first university in their city. Curiously, they arrived at this decision much earlier than residents of their neighbouring towns of Ubeda and Jaen, the histories of which have remained parallel for the most part. Anyway, in the 1530s, Baeza residents acquired one of the oldest educational institutions in Spain.

The university was established by a papal bull of Pope Paul III by local cleric Rodrigo Lopez on the grounds of the former Franciscan monastery of St. Leon. This is one of the few buildings in Baeza executed in the style of Mannerism characterized by disruption of traditional composition and balanced forms as opposed to the Renaissance’s harmonious architecture.

The two-story building was erected around a large courtyard. It’s surrounded by beautiful semi-circular arches and Doric columns that form arcades from all sides.

The university has a masonry facade decorated in the Baroque style with semi-circular arches framing front doors. On the left, there is the Chapel of St. John the Apostle built in the early 17th century. Its magnificent tower catches everyone’s eye and serves as the main decoration of the building.

The first university of Baeza had been operating until the early 18th century when the city went into a prolonged economic crisis from which it never managed to fully recover. Today, the former university building is an important local architectural monument that slowly starts to go back to the cultural and educational life.