The Residencia de Estudiantes opened its doors in Madrid on October 1, 1910 under the direction of Alberto Jiménez Fraud.  It was created by the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (JAE), a public institution established in 1907 chaired by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, with José Castillejo as secretary and executive director. The goal of the JAE was to establish a flow of scientific communication with the most advanced countries, sending professionals to study abroad and establishing new scientific and educational institutions in Spain, such as the Residencia de Estudiantes.

 

Both the JAE and the Residencia were inspired by Francisco Giner de los Ríos and his colleagues at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, a private organization pursuing the modernization of Spanish society through education, science and culture. The Residencia de Estudiantes began its work in a small rented house on Fortuny St.,
in Madrid and housed fifteen students the first year. In 1915, it moved to its permanent seat, five buildings that were built along the lines of functional architecture, in the midst of gardens, which Juan Ramón Jiménez named The Poplar Hill. In 1933, a building with the auditorium and the library was added to the educational complex.

 

Since its beginning, the Residencia generated an atmosphere conducive to work, creativity and the pursuit of excellence, but also for the joy, fun, inventiveness and, especially, the dialogue between the different backgrounds, age and professional interests of the residents. This environment favored tolerance and a comprehensive education of its students, strengthening the coexistence of the different disciplines.
 
Science, thought, music, performing arts, architecture, art, and poetry were part of the daily life of the Residencia. Along with courses, lectures or laboratory practices, there were excursions, museum visits, trips to cities of artistic interest, and sports such as tennis, football, mountaineering, skiing, athletics, rugby and hockey
for male and female students.
 
Professors such as Unamuno, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Ortega y Gasset, Menéndez Pidal, Blas Cabrera, Eugenio d'Ors and, specially those who were also residents for many years, such as Ángel Llorca, Ricardo de Orueta, and José Moreno Villa, taught the students following an informal tutorial system similar to Anglo-Saxon universities. The laboratories of the Residencia facilitated students' access to research under the supervision of prestigious scientists, such as Pío del Río-Hortega, Juan Negrín, Gonzalo Rodríguez Lafora, and Antonio Madinaveitia. In those laboratories, future Nobel Prize winner Severo Ochoa, the physician Francisco Grande Covián, and the physicists Miguel Catalán and Salvador Velayos studied and worked.
 
Even more famous is the core of artists that lived at the Residencia, with the peculiar José (Pepín) Bello as the central figure of a group that included Federico García Lorca, Salvador Dalí, and Luis Buñuel. Their work and that of many artists of their generation bears the mark of their fellowship during those years and the ebullient creativity generated by the Residencia.
 
The Residencia pioneered women's access to the university. The Residencia de Señoritas was established in 1915, with María de Maeztu as its director. Victoria Kent, Josefina Carabias, and scientist Felisa Martín Bravo were among the outstanding residents; María Goyri, María Zambrano, and Maruja Mallo taught there.
 
The Residencia was internationally recognized as the first cultural center of Spain. It organized numerous lectures, concerts and activities of all kinds, and it was a window open to the new intellectual, artistic and scientific developments outside Spain.  Howard Carter lectured about his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen, and Albert Einstein explained the theory of relativity. These activities were made possible by two associations closely related to the Residencia: the Comité Hispano-Inglés (1923), chaired by the Duke of Alba, and the Sociedad de Cursos y Conferencias (1924). Both groups helped bring to Madrid many of the protagonists of the 20th century.

 

The success of the Residencia's project was proven by the fact that four out of the seven Spaniards awarded the Nobel Prize were connected with the Residencia de Estudiantes: Cajal, Severo Ochoa, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and Vicente Aleixandre.
 
After the exile of its director and the evacuation of the last residents in 1937, the Residencia de Estudiantes became a military hospital during the Civil War. In March 1939, Madrid was occupied by Franco's troops. The Residencia was taken by air force troops that established a dining hall for the officers. The new regime created the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and confiscated the buildings and assets of the JAE.
The Poplar Hill radically changed: the Central and Twin Pavilions became a residence hall for CSIC researchers, and the auditorium was rebuilt as the Church of the Holy Ghost

 

In 1986, the Residencia entered a new phase, recovering its name and tradition. Since then, besides being a place for memory, it has become again a place for encounter and dialogue between science and art, for reflection on the currents of contemporary thought, and for international debate related to creativity and innovation.

 

Today, its rehabilitated buildings annually host over 4,000 researchers and artists from all over the world. There is also a group of young researchers and artists who benefit from its scholarship program, holds exhibitions, poetry readings, concerts, lectures and congresses. The Documentation Center stores a unique set of documents, specializing in intellectual history from the first third of the 20th century in Spain, mainly related to the Residencia de Estudiantes, the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios, and the Institución Libre de Enseñanza. These archives have provided material for many research projects that lead to numerous publications.

 

 Today, the Residencia that was and still is the home of Dalí, Lorca and Buñuel remains dedicated to creativity. To the place where Einstein presented his theory of relativity in Spain still arrive the latest trends in physics or biology. It maintains its tradition of innovation, and at the Residencia one can listen to the latest in music, poetry ... In its garden in the center of Madrid the oleanders that Juan Ramón Jiménez planted have survived, and one can hear the young voices of the culture of the future.