It was founded in 1894 as a recruit service by the Jesuit P. Granero. This building was inhabited in three years' time, and Francisco Rabanal was the one who carried out the architecture building plans. Brother Soriano was an excellent master carpenter, and the perfection of woodwork in Cartuja is due to him. He also carried out the paneling of the canteen, by using the pieces of planks which remained from the parquetry. The paneling of the chapel is made of the boxes where the cabinet of Physics received its gadgets. He could not finish the work, because he was summoned in Villafranca School, which was then beginning to arise. He was replaced by Brother Aguirrezábal, from Castilla.
By the year 1894 the building became habitable. The Library, the Assembly Hall and the Chapel were still waiting for being built (María Josefa Melgarejo wanted to fund it).
On 3rd July the first inhabitants arrived to start an everyday life. While the arabic Chapel was being built, the Assembly Hall was fit out. It was not finished until June and it was finally inaugurated on June 21st.
The Colegio Máximo was the first building built by the Jesuits in Cartuja between 1891 and 1894. This mudejar-styled building, whose architect was Rabanal, and which was built as school and novitiate of the Compañía de Jesús, is embeded in a beautiful leafy grove.
Francisco Rabanal, gaining inspiration from the Mudejar style, raises this building flanked by four towers. On the ground floor, the building is surrounded by four patios, two of them are bigger in size. There are four floors in the towers and three in the rest of the building. In every floor we can find three horseshoe-shaped arches with an alfiz. In the central floors there are central arches which have got an alfiz and in the upper floor we can find saw-teeth spandrels. The upper floor of the towers consists of eight horseshoe-shaped arches framed by an alfiz.
The main facade is framed by two central towers leading to the entrance porch, which consists of three horseshoe-shaped arches with an alfiz, whose spandrels and voussoirs are decorated by brick strips.
The towers of the facade have the same composition, except for the fact that there is one row of horseshoe-shaped arches and three rows in the upper part.
In 1916-17 the former brick balaustrade of the entrance porch was replaced by a sculpture of the Sacred Heart.
The University got this building in the 70s, and at the beginning it was supposed to be demolished. For this reason, it remained closed for several years. At the beginning of the 80s the building was deplorably preserved.
In 1982 this building was declared a historical monument of artistic interest (Real Decreto, January 19th 1983).
All throughout the 80s, several university buildings were located in it, which allowed it to be restored for teaching purposes.
The architects Castro Padilla and Gallego Roca have been the main responsibles for the adaptation of the building. This adaptation consisted of partition walls being demolished and wood stairs being replaced by metallic ones, amongst other modifications.
The first center set up in Colegio Máximo was the School of Stomatology. The adaptation project of the building for this School took place in 1982.
Due to the fact that the budget was not enough to fulfill the whole project, it was split into two phases; the second one being carried out in 1984.
In 1987, the south wing of the building was remodeled and enlarged in order to set up the Faculty of Odontology.
In 1984, the front area of the building was assigned to the University School of Library Science and Documentation, nowadays known as Faculty of Communication and Documentation.
In that year, Jiménez Robles carried out the adaptation of some rooms in the ground floor for the Science Museum of the University of Granada, but the project was not completed.
The Publishing Services of the University moved into the upper part of the building. One of the adaptations made was the restoration of the facade by adding security iron bars and opening one of the doors. Prior to the adaptation of this area for the Publishing Services, it was tidied up by demolishing several run-down rooms. Afterwards, the upper part of the building had to be shared with the Facult of Arts, which also occupied the north wing.
At the end of the 80s the building was saturated to such an extent that in 1989 the former refectory had to be adapted to become a clinical room for the Facuylty of Odontology. Moreover, one of the patios had to be conditioned to impart the subject “Sculptural process”.
Towards 1990, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Library Science and Documentation (which was still a University School) and the Faculty of Odontology, as well as the Publishing Services were set up in the building.
Afterwards, the Faculty of Arts relocated to its current location, and the School of Higher Technology of Civil, Canal and Port Engineering occupied the building from 1992 until 2000, when it was relocated to the Polytechnic Building of the University.
As a consequence of this relocation and the abandonment of the building by the Publishing Services, the Faculties of Communication and Documentation and Odontology have been able to share the whole building.