Description

The Faculty of Medicine, inaugurated in 1944, was the first of the university’s buildings to relocate from the city centre to the then-outskirts. It replaced the previous faculty, designed by Juan Montserrat and opened in 1887. This original centre, which was located on Rector López Argüeta Street, could no longer accommodate the ever-growing population of students. 

The concept behind the Faculty was developed by architects Sebastián Vilata and Aurelio Botella. Comprising also the Clínico Hospital and the School of Nursing, it brought together the modern trends of rationalist, functional architecture and the historicism of the classical tradition. 

The façade of the building is broadly horizontal and lavishly decorated with Pozoblanco granite. In a classically reiterative style, this composition surrounds the entire building, and is only punctuated by small turrets and the vertical format of the windows. The side elevations, whose wall bases are also decorated in Pozoblanco granite, comprise two storeys separated by a type of frieze featuring a rectangular pattern. On each side façade there are three windows. Set around the top of the building is a flat-fronted section adorned with a balustrade. 

The building is set on a trapezoidal ground-plan. The entrance sits behind a stairway that leads to a curved portico supported by six Doric columns on granite pedestals, topped by a parapet. 

Two imperial staircases give the building a magnificent classical touch. Loja marble and Sierra Elvira limestone blend with other materials such as cork in the interior decoration, in a markedly eclectic style. 

The internal spaces are set around seven courtyards and their connecting passageways, creating a building that provides both a high level of functionality and spatial quality throughout the different zones. This quality is achieved, among other features, by grouping the various specialisations vertically and connecting them by internal stairways, which frees up horizontal movement through the building.