Guided visit to the old University of Alcalá

The Plateresque façade of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso, on Plaza de San Diego, is the front of the university founded by Cardinal Cisneros in 1499. The inside is seen only with a guide: the University's Guided Visits Team takes you through the three courtyards, the Paraninfo, where the Cervantes Prize is awarded, and the chapel of San Ildefonso with Cisneros's tomb. The university and the historic precinct have been a World Heritage Site since 2 December 1998.

What you see

The façade was begun in 1537 by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, the architect of the cathedrals of Salamanca and Segovia, and completed in 1553 by his site master, Pedro de la Cotera. The best carvers of the time worked on it, and the grilles were forged by Francisco de Villalpando and Ruiz Díaz del Corral, masters of Toledo cathedral. Today the building is the Rectorate.

Inside you pass through three courtyards: that of Santo Tomás de Villanueva, that of the Philosophers and the Trilingual. In the west wing of the latter is the Paraninfo, the former scholastic theatre where degrees were conferred and solemn ceremonies held, with a wooden coffered ceiling; it is the hall where the Cervantes Prize is presented each year. The chapel of San Ildefonso mixes Gothic, Mudéjar and Renaissance motifs, with polychrome lacework ceilings, and houses Cisneros's tomb, one of the great works of 16th-century Spanish sculpture. The Paraninfo and the chapel are the only two parts of the Colegio Mayor built in the founder's lifetime.

Hours and tickets

The visit lasts an hour and costs €6, €4 reduced, with limited capacity. According to the November 2026 timetable leaflet of the Tourist Office, there are tours Tuesday to Friday at 11:00, 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00; on Saturdays, every hour from 11:00 to 18:00, with one in English at 14:00, and on Sundays and public holidays at 11:00, 12:00 and 13:00. Book on the university's visits website or on 91 885 64 87; for groups, schools and students there are separate forms. Mondays do not appear in the leaflet.

If you want to combine two visits, Alcalá Turismo y Más sells a combined ticket with the Antezana Hospital: university at 11:00, validating 15 minutes earlier at the University shop, on Plaza de San Diego, and Antezana at 13:30. CompluTour also offers a two-and-a-half-hour visit that adds the university and a walk around the old town.

Around

On the same Plaza de San Diego are the Hotel El Bedel and La Cátedra, with big windows onto the façade. In the Trilingual College, the Hostería del Estudiante is the Paradores restaurant. A stroll away are Plaza de Cervantes and Calle Mayor.