About the Institution
400 years have passed since Fernando de Valdés Salas decided to create the University of Oviedo in the 16th century, being the official opening date on September 21st, 1608. Nowadays, the University includes several disciplines and degrees and a plural community located at the different campuses and cities. On September 21st, 1608, and with the presence of representatives of the most important institutions of that time, the new academic institution was opened in the new university building in calle San Francisco, which is nowadays the most important remain of such initial and difficult times. Our new institution gathered the thinking of the learned universities of Castile (mostly Alcalá and Salamanca) and adopted it in the first regulations of institutional governance: the well-know Old Statutes, provided by the testamentary executors in 1607. This ended the legal compulsory process to recognize the degrees to be granted by the University of Oviedo after the papal (Bull of 1574) and Royal (Royal Decree of 1604) recognitions had taken place.