It was pouring with rain as we opened the curtains on Day 7 of Travel in Spain, not gentle English rain, but bucketloads of water which ran in rivers down the streets. Even a dash across the square resulted in wet shoes and trouser bottoms!
‘..Alonso III Fonseca (1475–1534) was a Galician archbishop and politician. He was archbishop of Santiago de Compostela from 1507, and archbishop of Toledo from 1523. He was a major supporter of the University of Santiago de Compostela. He was the son of the archbishop Alonso II Fonseca and MarÃa de Ulloa..’. An extraordinary man, active, powerful, and erudite, a Patron of artists and in communication with Erasmus.
The University of Santiago de Compostelo dates back to 1495 with the establishment of a school in Santiago. Permission for a University came in 1504 and by the mid-1550s the University was exploring fields of learning apart from those followed in the Monasteries. It was when Fonseca became Archbishop of Santiago that the Santiago Alfeo College (Fonseca College) was built on land owned by his family. The College was apparently the centre of university until mid-18C, and today it houses the University Library.
The College of St Xerome attached to the Fonseca College and facing on to Obradoira Square and is now University offices. The building dates from the 17C but the doorway was taken from an older, 15C building.
You may be interested in
College of Fonseca
University of Santiago
Santiago de Compostelo
The Life and Acts of Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman
Pazo de Ulloa, Cambados
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