Founded on July 3, 1886 with the merger of the Sociedad Universitaria and the Ateneo del Uruguay, it is housed in an eclectic-historicist style building located on the Plaza de Cagancha in Centro.

[2] It began as a free university that sought to break out of the state system dominated by the political changes and religious dogmatism prevailing in Uruguayan society at the time.

Located at the intersection of the Plaza de Cagancha ring road and Rondeau Street, the two-story building in an eclectic style had been started in 1897 by the architects José María Claret, Julián Masquelez and Emilio Boix.

[5] In 1915, the team made up of the architects Horacio Azzarini, Julio Vilamajó and the sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín was in charge of decorating the large assembly hall on the upper floor.

[7][8] In 1940, the Ateneo, evoking its "democratic tradition and the imperative of its moral conscience," issued a statement repudiating fascism and communism, as well as world war that began the previous year.