CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF VENEZUELA (U.C.V.)

The history of the Central University began with the foundation of the Santa Rosa de Lima College by Antonio González de Acuña in 1673. It was inaugurated in 1696 by Diego Baños Combarro. Ironically, it was in the chapel of the seminar that Venezuela's independence was declared on 5 July 1811. At present, the enclosure houses the municipal palace in Caracas. At the end of the th century, the University began to modernize. The then Rector introduces the first lessons in rational philosophy of Locke, Newton, Leibnitz or Descartes to counter the theories of Saint Thomas and Hippocrates. The seeds of independence are sown despite the opposition of the Spanish authorities of the University. It was after Spain's defeat in the War of Independence that the institution was modernizing at the academic level. A republican institution was born. On 24 June 1827, Simón Bolívar, during his last visit to Caracas, signs the University's statutes, which give him secular autonomy, profit and democracy. Revenues will be used as an economic support to the institution and then consist of property donated by Bolívar, such as the estate of Chuao, Cata and Tácata. These new rules extend the educational vision of new courses and laboratories, and, above all, end the process of selecting students by the colour of the skin and then reduce the cost of university degrees. The Central University of Venezuela was born. Since 1953, it is located in the university city of Caracas, created by the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, and represents the most emblematic work of this master, declared to mankind's cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2000!