Designation
Department of Mathematics
Current occupation
Department of Mathematics
Ownership
University of Coimbra
Art-historical characterisation
As part of the ambitious plan to renovate the university space, the Department of Mathematics was given new facilities, arranged in a ‘T’ shape. Once the option of combining the Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics departments in a single building had been overcome, Lucínio Guia da Cruz designed the current Mathematics Department building in an autonomous block. Construction began in 1964 and it was inaugurated five years later, in an event marked by a student revolt against the totalitarian regime.
In keeping with the stylistic canons adopted by the Administrative Commission of the University City of Coimbra, the Department of Mathematics building has an architectural design inspired by a soft monumental classicism. The portal of the main façade was decorated with bas-reliefs sculpted by Gustavo Bastos, evoking ‘Mathematics as a Science of Nature’ on the left and ‘Mathematics as a Science of Thought’ on the right. The entrance hall was decorated on the side walls with two frescoes, one depicting the ‘Portuguese Mathematics at the service of the national epic’ and the other portraying the ‘Mathematics from the Chaldeans and Egyptians to the present day’, by Almada Negreiros.
To this day, the building houses the teaching and administrative services of the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra.
