The roots of Semmelweis University reach back to the 18th century, when Empress Maria Theresa added a medical faculty to the only Hungarian university at the time, the University of Nagyszombat (Trnava).[4] As the first step the Empress, in a charter dated 17 July 1769, raised the university to the status of a “royal institute” and supplied it with grants to finance the Medical Faculty, which was to be established shortly thereafter.