The University of Porto, with its 14 Faculties, was only created in 1911, and then with only two Faculties: Sciences and Medicine. In the case of the Faculty of Sciences, it is possible to follow a 250-year evolution, beginning with the Nautical Classroom (1762), the Drawing Classroom (1779), the Royal Academy of Marine and Commerce (1803), and the Polytechnic Academy (1837).
All these developments took place on the site of the University of Porto's Central Building. The gradual transfer of the Faculty of Sciences to Pole 3 (Campo Alegre) took place in the period 1996-2009. In the building, now occupied by the Rectory and Central Services, only the Old Fund, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum remain.