The biggest, and at the same time the youngest among the university dormitory buildings, is the Noble Boarding House on the corner of Hollého and M. Schneidera Trnavského Streets. Originating from the years between 1747 and 1754, the Noble Boarding House is a Viennese late Baroque work by an unknown architect of the Vienna court construction office, which was funded by Maria Theresa. The boarding house replaced an old bourgeois house where already the archbishop M. Oláh had tried to establish a Jesuit grammar school in 1561. The main feature of this four-wing palace with a closed courtyard is an octagonal chapel of St. John the Evangelist with baroque frescos by Vavrinec Mussinger (1758). The main portal, by J. J. Rösler, is the most imposing of all Trnava portals. The boarding house was built for students coming from noble families to provide them with a higher standard of accommodation. Although it may seem that the main base of such an institution as the university only consisted of nobility and wealthy social groups, students of noble origin formed only a quarter of all students. Besides wealth and social diversity, a multinational principle was applied within the student and staff composition. However, busy student life disturbed the peaceful life of the town. There occurred sometimes serious, and sometimes comic conflicts. Unpermitted parties, the violation of quiet hours, drunken nuisance, and thefts in the vineyards were punished by fines, whipping, or imprisonment – for example, three students were put in jail for the theft of carnival donuts. On the other hand, the university directorate appealed for satisfaction for the smear-words that citizens called them by. Conflicts between the municipality and university about the jurisdiction and criminal jurisdiction over the students’ cases had to be resolved by the king himself, who established a position of university judge. In 1783, the army moved into the boarding school premises, as well as into all other empty university buildings. Nowadays, it is the seat of the Archbishop’s Office of the Trnava diocese.

 

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