The making of a university in Mallorca has been in the works for the best of 735 years.

Ramon Llull, Mallorca’s wunderkind, philosopher, poet, theologian and mystic, founded the Col·legi de Miramar in Mallorca in 1276, in a way a predecessor of today’s Universitat de les Illes Balears. All those years ago, the Col·legi de Miramar was one of the first centres of study and research anywhere in Europe.

In 1483, a royal privilege was granted by King Fernando II to set up the Studium Generale Lullianum in Palma de Mallorca, based on Llull’s academic approach, as a centre of higher education. In 1691, the Studium Generale Lullianum was converted into the Universitat Lul·liana de Mallorca, with statutes approved in 1697. After a spell of anti-Llullism, the university was renamed in 1772 as Universitat Literària de Mallorca, and in 1829, it was affiliated to the Universitat Catalana de Cervera (Catalonia).

Then, in 1951, the Studium Generale Lullianum was revived and the Llullian university restored. For several years, courses were held in Law and Philosophy, albeit somewhat restricted for economic reasons. In 1959, the Ramon Llull Chair was established in Mallorca, appointed to the Faculty of Philosophy at the Universitat de Barcelona, where doctorates could be obtained. At the same time, highly popular summer courses were held in the field of Humanities, in later years being extended to other branches of science.

After the death of the autocrat Franco and with Spain’s transition to democracy, the current Universitat de les Illes Balears was founded in 1978, in a climate which was helped by the economic affluence that the growth of tourism had brought with it.

The photo was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 27th, 2010. The time was 14:01:17.