University of Deusto

The University of Deusto is a Spanish private university owned by the Society of Jesus, with campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastián, and the Deusto Business School branch in Madrid. The University of Deusto is the oldest private university in Spain. History Origins The University of Deusto first opened in 1886, having been founded because of the Basque Country's desire to have its own university and the Society of Jesus's wish to move its School of Higher Studies in Laguardia to a more central place. To that effect a huge building was designed by architect Francisco de Cubas, which was the largest building in Bilbao at the time. Now it is the main building of the Bilbao campus, opposite to the Guggenheim Museum, in the district of Deusto, which gives its name to the university. The Universidad Comercial (Business College), founded in 1916, was the first business school in Spain, and the only one for nearly 50 years. Civil War and postwar The advent of the Second Spanish Republic (1931) interrupted and altered university life at Deusto. On 23 January 1932, the Spanish government dissolved the Society of Jesus by decree, and the university, owned by the Jesuits, was closed down. Some lectures still continued at the "Academia Vizcaína de Cultura", and the "Universidad Comercial" (Faculty of Economics) could carry on work as normal until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. During the war, the University of Deusto became a military base, but after the fall of Bilbao in 1937 it was turned into a hospital, food supply centre, and concentration camp. It resumed classes in October 1940.