The Technical University of Madrid (UPM) celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1996, although the majority of its centres are over hundreds of years old and were founded in the 18th and 19th centuries. Each of them maintained its independence until being grouped together to form the UPM. It is no exaggeration to state that over one and a half centuries great part of the history of Spanish technology has been written by the Schools of Architecture and Engineering. They have been during a lot of years nearly the only and in some cases actually the only schools. All of the important personalities in the area of teaching and research passed through the respective centres as students or lecturers.