Whoever visits Cuzco can sense the solemn colonial days and nights of the 18th century, in the Old San Antonio Abad Seminary which is over 300 years old and converted today into the Hotel Monasterio de Cuzco with all the quality expected of a five-star hotel and offering a singular blend of the Inca and Spanish traditions of this city.

In the first quarter of the 18th century the Seminary, which was also the San Antonio Abad School, apparently began functioning in makeshift quarters and, years before the big quake of 1650, acquired the Nazarenas building where the final cloister would be built with its artistic chapel - this last erected in the second half of the 17th century by order of famous philanthropist bishop Don Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo.

Up until the end of the 17th century, according to contemporary documents, the Seminary School served to educate sons of the needy conquistadors and aristocrats of the city. Many of them did not pay either for studies or keep - they were boarders who did not go outside the school compound and worked very hard, their schedule running from 5 in the morning to 11 at night.

	University´s Beginings