The College of Jesus

The College of Jesus is the great architectural complex erected by the Society of Jesus from the mid-16th century. Arriving in Portugal in 1540, they founded here the roots of a model of organisation on a planetary scale. This College articulated the evangelising practice with a scientific and pedagogical vocation, just as it would happen in the colleges of Lisbon and Évora. In Coimbra, great international professors put into practice an experimental and modern science, based on instruments that the Society itself manufactured. They were also responsible for training Jesuit missionaries sent to the various continents and, largely, agents of the King in his relations with the Church.

The building of the College constituted a rationalised space, inscribed in a large rectangle, integrating the church, study rooms, library, dormitories and courtyards, etc. The Jesuit complex was completed, in an annex building, by the kitchens and the important College of Arts, which was compulsory for all faculties. In 1772, more than a decade after the expulsion of the Company, the abandoned college underwent profound reorganisation, in a concerted action between the Marquis of Pombal and the Rector-Reformer. The majority of the building was incorporated into the University, and the new knowledge advocated by the Reformation began to be taught there. In turn, the church, then adapted to the new cathedral, and therefore called New Cathedral, remained "surrounded" by knowledge, reinforcing the alliance between the powers of the Church and the Academy.