The Residencia de Estudiantes, under the direction of Alberto Jiménez Fraud, was home to some of the most significant initiatives in Spanish culture during this time.
This was especially the case for speakers invited to the “cátedra de la Residencia” (“the Residencia Podium”). Thanks, in part, to the contacts of Spanish scientists and intellectuals, from Henri Bergson’s 1916 conference onwards, visits from foreign speakers multiplied, including Paul Valéry, H. G. Wells, Albert Einstein, Paul Claudel, Max Jacob, Wilhelm Worringer, Keynes, Le Corbusier, Marie Curie and Keyserling.
These visits were financed by the Comité Hispano-Inglés (1923) and the Sociedad de Cursos y Conferencias (1924). The former granted various scholarships to English university students to stay in the Residencia.
In addition, from 1912, the Centro de Estudios Históricos organised summer schools for foreigners in the Residencia, managed by Menéndez Pidal, which provided a precedent for another cultural link: the Universidad Internacional de Verano de Santander.
Blas Cabrera con Marie Curie el día de la conferencia que ésta pronunció en la Residencia de Estudiantes acerca de «La radioactividad y la evolución de la ciencia», Madrid, 22 de abril de 1931. Residencia de Estudiantes, Madrid.