The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon, Spain. Founded in 1542, it is one of the oldest universities in Spain, with a history dating back to the Roman period. Prime Ministers Pascual Madoz, Manuel Azaña, Salustiano de Olózaga and Eusebio Bardají, the Nobel Prize laureate and father of modern neuroscience Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the Catholic saint Josemaría Escrivá and the Cuban national hero Jose Marti studied at this university. History Beginnings Ecclesiastical schools were the initial elements of the University of Zaragoza. These schools were later consolidated into the School of Zaragoza, led by Bishop Braulio during the seventh century (who would later be made the patron saint of the university). The School of Arts officially became a university in 1542, though some scholars argue it could be considered a university of arts since 1477. Foundation The studium generale of arts, also called or primitive University of Zaragoza, was in the Magdalena and St. Nicholas neighborhoods. Its main building was a broad tower of circular base on the old wall of the city, and it had more than 20 chambers distributed in three different floors. Besides the normal chambers that were granted and rented by the university to both pupils and teachers, on the first floor the tower had the chamber called , where the grades were given, and also a library. On the second floor were the prison, the latrines and the doorkeeper's chamber. Finally, on the last floor there were bigger rooms with balconies, and the chamber of the four Masters of Arts. The studium had also bought more chambers in the tower surroundings and on the city wall; the most important were the five chambers called , and eleven more in the studium's square, called chambers. The studium's head was the chancellor, a position always held by the archbishop of Zaragoza, and the second in command was the vice-chancellor, who was also the high master of the studium. The high master collected taxes from any pupil, with the exception of the poor, the cleric from La Seo cathedral, or any student he would want to forgive such payment. Under him were the four masters of arts, four positions reserved for selected individuals who held a master of arts degree, and who were in charge of