World Heritage Identification Number: 876
World Heritage since: 1998
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇪🇸 Spain
Continent: Europe
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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The University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares: A Legacy of Education and Urban Planning
The University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares, located in the Community of Madrid, Spain, is a testament to the fusion of education, urban planning, and history that has made it a significant UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. This city, founded in the early 16th century by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, serves as the original model for the Civitas Dei (City of God) – an idea that Spanish missionaries would later bring to the Americas. Moreover, it influenced numerous universities across Europe and beyond.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Founded by Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros in the early 16th century, Alcalá de Henares was the world's first planned university city. It was the original model for the Civitas Dei (City of God), the ideal urban community which Spanish missionaries brought to the Americas. It also served as a model for universities in Europe and elsewhere.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (ii): Alcalá de Henares was the first city to be designed and built solely as the seat of a university, and was to serve as the model for other centres of learning in Europe and the Americas.
Criterion (iv): The concept of the ideal city, the City of God (Civitas Dei), was first given material expression in Alcalá de Henares, from where it was widely diffused throughout the world.
Criterion (vi): The contribution of Alcalá de Henares to the intellectual development of humankind finds expression in its materialization of the Civitas Dei, in the advances in linguistics that took place there, not least in the definition of the Spanish language, and through the work of its great son, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and his masterpiece, Don Quixote.
Encyclopedia Record: Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the north bank of the Henares. As of 2018, it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated municipality.Additional Site Details
Area: 78.38 hectares
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
(vi) — Directly associated with events or living traditions
Coordinates: 40.48138889 , -3.368055556
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© santiago lopez-pastor, CC BY-SA 2.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
