La Nau

The La Nau building is the headquarters of the Universitat de València since its foundation at the end of the 15th century. The General Council of the city agreed in 1498 the grouping of all the higher studies of the city in a General Study and promoted to raise them to rank
academic. For this purpose, he acquired a series of houses and plots that stood in the vicinity of La Nau street and commissioned Pere Compte to remodel it. In 1499 the Juries or representatives of the city wrote the first statutes of the new institution, which opened its doors in 1500. The papal bull (Alejandro VI) and the royal privilege (Fernando II the Catholic) that gave the university rank to the studios They arrived in 1501 and 1502.

The building is an example of Valencian neoclassical architecture, especially in its facades and cloister. Its current architectural configuration is the result of a succession of interventions that have been adapting the building to its different functions and needs over more than five centuries, from the first design commissioned to Pere Compte to the most recent interventions (1999 and 2012) They have updated their functionality and updated their infrastructures.

The growth and expansion of the Universitat de València since the 60s in the Blasco Ibáñez campuses (health sciences and humanities studies), Tarongers Campus (studies in social sciences and economics) and the Burjassot-Paterna campus ( studies of basic and technical sciences) reduced the academic functions of La Nau, which has become the benchmark for the cultural and institutional activity of the University of Valencia.

At present, La Nau, besides being the institutional headquarters of the Rectorate, houses, as a Cultural Center, an important part of the cultural activities of the Universitat de València (exhibitions, theatre and music) and is a space for meeting and debate (conferences and congresses).

La Nau is also the headquarters of the Historical Library and hosts the dependencies of diverse university services, among them those linked to the area of culture and heritage.