The history of the Central University of Venezuela begins with the foundation of the Colegio Santa Rosa de Lima by Antonio González de Acuña in 1673, which was inaugurated on August 29, 1696 by Diego Baños Sotomayor. Ironically, in the chapel of the seminary was declared the Independence of Venezuela on July 5, 1811, and it was in that same institution where many of the editors and signers of the act were formed. Currently this venue serves as Municipal Palace of Caracas.
On December 22, 1721, after many efforts by the Venezuelans, King Felipe V granted faculty to the Seminary to grant degrees through the Royal Cedula and on December 18, 1722, Pope Innocent XIII granted him the status of Pontifical. Initially classes of theology, medicine, philosophy and law were given, all in Latin, but eventually the academic regime became independent from the seminary and on August 11, 1725, the Bishop of Caracas Juan José de Escalona y Calatayud (who had managed the Creation of the institute), installs the Royal and Pontifical Seminary University Santa Rosa de Lima of Santiago of Leon of the Valley Caracas. Its first rector was the presbyter Francisco Martínez de Porras and until 1810, date in which the Seminary of San Buenaventura of Mérida was elevated to University (current University of the Andes), the one of Caracas was unique of the country. The University was called Real and Pontifical, being under the tutelage and protection of the Monarch and the Supreme Pontiff. To be admitted as a student of the university it was necessary to present a testimony of "vista et moribus", that is to say, a detailed relation of "life and good customs".
At the end of the eighteenth century, the University of Caracas began to "dress modern", thanks to the Rector Baltasar de los Marreros who initiated the teaching of the rationalist philosophy of Locke, Newton, Leibnitz, Descartes and other philosophers. The rejection of the postulates of the works of Aristotle, St. Thomas, Justiniano and Hipócatres, and becoming the seedbed of Independence. Consequently, between 1814 and 1821, the Spanish authorities of the university banned the teaching of modern currents of thought and unleashed a persecution against the sympathizers of independence. With the defeat of Spain in the War of Independence, the university went from Real to Republican and began its first academic and institutional modernization.
Juan José Escalona and Calatayud, managed the creation of the University
The Republican University
Convent of San Francisco (present Palace of the Academies) in 1911. Headquarters of the UCV by almost 100 years.
On June 24, 1827, during his last visit to Caracas, Simón Bolívar, together with José María Vargas and José Rafael Revenga, drafted the Republican statutes of the University of Caracas, which endowed it with full autonomy, secular character, income and democracy . These rents had to serve as economic sustenance for the institution and consisted of properties donated by Bolivar, such as the haciendas of Chuao, Cata and Tácata. These new norms expand the educational vision by incorporating new chairs and laboratories, eliminate the odious procedure of selecting students for skin color, reduce the cost of university degrees, increase the salaries of professors, and suppress Latin as the official language of The teaching and endow the University with an immense economic patrimony, represented in lands and haciendas.
With these new rules, Real and Pontifical was removed from the name and transcends its regional jurisdiction from being the University of Caracas to the Central University of Venezuela in allusion to the new Republic. This name, by the way, has been maintained for historical reasons but the central University does not group or administer to other universities of the country.
In November of 1856 the University became independent of the seminary of Santa Rosa when moving to the building of the old convent of San Francisco (present Palace of the Academies). For its part, the seminary continued to exist until September 21, 1872, when it was closed and expropriated
by Antonio Guzmán Blanco.
Convent of San Francisco (present Palace of the Academies) in 1911. Headquarters of the UCV by almost 100 years.
The UCV in recent times
Since 1953, the Central University of Venezuela is located in the University City of Caracas, decreed in 1943 by President Isaías Medina Angarita, architecturally designed by the master Carlos Raúl Villanueva and built, in large part, in the government of the general Marcos Pérez Jiménez. The present headquarters (the University City of Caracas) is the most emblematic of the works of this master whose magnificence reached its maximum expression on November 30, 2000, when it was declared the University City of Caracas Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Their move was due to the fact that between 1930 and 1940 the capacity of the Convent of San Francisco collapsed due to the growth of the student population, which had forced the S university authorities to disperse the faculties for the city. For this reason, on October 2, 1943 Isaías Medina Angarita decreed the construction of another university headquarters and the University University Institute (ICU) was set up, an agency attached to the Ministry of Public Works in charge of coordinating the construction. In this decision played a fundamental role the then Rector Antonio Jose Castillo, who insisted on the need to gather all faculties, schools and institutes of the UCV in a single nucleus. Originally the University City was on the outskirts of Caracas, in the grounds of the Hacienda Ibarra (former property of Simon Bolivar), and took approximately 20 years to build in its entirety. However, on March 2, 1954, Marcos Perez Jimenez inaugurated the Plaza Cubierta, the Aula Magna and the Central Library on the occasion of the X Ibero-American Conference in Caracas. In its original project, the University City was formed by 60 buildings distributed among green zones that covered a 203 hectares. Currently, there are more than 70 buildings, including the Botanical Garden of Caracas and the Central Library of the UCV.
In the buildings are housed 9 of the 11 faculties of the University, with the Veterinary Sciences and Agronomy with its headquarters in the city of Maracay. The University City also houses one of the most important art collections in the world, which includes buildings as examples of the modernist movement of the twentieth century and murals, mosaics, stained glass and sculptures by abstract-geometric artists, constructivists, surrealists and figurativists of The likes of Fernand Léger, Victor Vasarely, Jean Arp, Wilfredo Lam, Alexander Calder, Alejandro Otero, Francisco Narváez, Oswaldo Vigas, Pascual Navarro and Mateo Manaure, among others. Almost all the works are found in the gardens, ceilings, walls and windows of buildings, making the university campus a virtual open-air museum. In these 288 years of university history (1721-2009), the University, some Times, it has enjoyed full autonomy; At other times, political regimes have reserved the right to appoint the authorities, and there has been no time when the University has been obliged to suspend its activities. The most prolonged closure of his teaching duties occurred during the gomecista dictatorship, when the decree was decreed for ten years (1912-1922).
The Central University of Venezuela is not the shadow of that familiar House of studies, located in the old Convent of San Francisco that Juan Vicente Gómez closed in 1912. At that time, the academic life of the UCV was confined to the traditional careers of Medicine, Law, Engineering and Ecclesiastical Sciences, plus the courses of Philosophy, Dentistry and Pharmacy that were given To 329 students. In the democratic stage the UCV has deepened its scientific and social contributions. From our laboratories the leprosy vaccine created by Jacinto Convit, the New Castle Vaccine that has made possible poultry mass rearing, the Carora breed of cattle, as well as fattening cattle and dairy of great quality, have come out. The Venezuelan pavilion in Seville for the celebration of the V Centenary of Discovery, just to mention some of the most widespread achievements. At the UCV 70% of research is done throughout the country. It currently maintains a student enrollment of around 54,222 undergraduate students and 8,317 postgraduate students, with 8,601 professors, of whom 3,811 are retired; 8,372 retired employees, distributed in 9 Faculties in Caracas, 2 Faculties in Maracay, 5 Nuclei of supervised studies and 12 Experimental Stations in different regions of the country, conform It is important to emphasize the UCV's leading role in the academic work of the nation, and its contribution in the training of professionals in the country, its classrooms have graduated more than one hundred and fifty thousand professionals who contribute to the development of Our country: No matter how much its functioning and teaching guidelines, irritating and mean political struggles and budget figures are questioned, the UCV will always deserve the respect and gratitude of Venezuelan society.
