The university was established in 1677 by Cristóbal de Castilla y Zamora, the Catholic archbishop of La Plata o Charcas.

Until it was closed in the mid-19th century, it operated mostly as a seminary for the training of Catholic priests.

In the 1960s, the university became a breeding ground for communist organizations, including the Shining Path.

This group, led by philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán, started there before growing into a violent guerrilla movement that conducted a bloody campaign against the government of Perú and against rival leftists groups.

This Peruvian university, college, or tertiary institution related article is a stub.