The Cajal Institute of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) holds the original legacy of Santiago Ramón y Cajal. The Cajal Space, its museum centre, preserves the most important scientific collection in the history of neuroscience.
The Cajal Institute at CSIC, founded in 1902 as the Laboratory for Biological Research by Santiago Ramón y Cajal himself, is Spain's oldest neuroscience research centre. Its premises on Calle Doctor Arce in Madrid house the Nobel laureate's complete material legacy: laboratory instruments, microscopes, notebooks, correspondence and, above all, the 15,666 microscopic preparations that Cajal stained by hand.
Cajal's microscopic preparations are glass slides containing sections of nervous tissue stained with the techniques he developed and perfected. Each preparation is a unique physical record: the tissue, the stain, the handwritten annotations on the label and, in many cases, the drawings Cajal made while observing them. Researchers from around the world still visit the Cajal Space to study them with modern technology.
The Cajal Space, opened as a museum and consultation centre, has received over 40,000 visitors. Its mission is twofold: to preserve the material legacy and to make it accessible to researchers, students and the general public. The digital catalogue is available through the CSIC's SIMURG platform.
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The Cajal Institute is located at Avenida Doctor Arce 37, Madrid. The Cajal Space can be visited by appointment. The digital catalogue of the legacy is accessible through SIMURG, the CSIC institutional repository.