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The former convent and its neogothic facade are testimonies of the changes in Caracas urban life from its construction until the present. Built in 1577, on a plot that was part of the city’s 24 founding blocks, to house Franciscan monks, the convent, located in front of the centenarian “Céiba de San Francisco”, experienced its most significant transformation in 1786, when it became the seat of the Central University of Venezuela until 1953. In 1876, when president Guzmán Blanco undertook an ambitious urban renewal plan, the facade modification was commissioned to Juan Hurtado Manrique, who kept the building’s height and constructed the current neogothic front as if it was a stage set, incorporating it into the then called Boulevard Guzmán Blanco, which impacted the urban structure of the colonial city. The former seat of the University and National Library, which was modified inside in 1922, 1930 and 1949, stands out because of its corridors, paintings, busts, gardens and treeplanted courtyards, and the solemn former assembly hall. The main entrance is topped by a 35 meter tower with four bodies, and by an octagonal based spire set on an octagonal body. The building currently houses the Palace of the Academies and theNational Library. Declared a Historical Monument in 1956.
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