Trinity College, Cambridge, UK — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Trinity College is the largest and one of the most prestigious colleges in Cambridge, founded by King Henry VIII on December 19, 1546. Its Great Court is said to be the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe. Henry created Trinity by merging two older institutions, Michaelhouse (1324) and King's Hall (1317), along with seven smaller hostels. By 1564, Trinity accounted for roughly a quarter of the entire university's membership. The college's alumni list reads like a who's who of human achievement. Isaac Newton, who formulated the laws of motion and gravity, studied and taught here. Francis Bacon, Lord Byron, Alfred Tennyson, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Ludwig Wittgenstein all walked through these courts. Six British prime ministers studied at Trinity, more than any other Cambridge college. Members of Trinity have won 34 Nobel Prizes, the highest count of any Cambridge college and more than most countries. The college also has the largest financial endowment of any college at Oxford or Cambridge. The Wren Library, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed in 1695, houses some of the college's greatest treasures, including a first edition of Newton's "Principia Mathematica" and original manuscripts by Milne's "Winnie-the-Pooh." If you're on a Questo quest through Cambridge, Trinity is a stop where walking across the same flagstones as Newton, Byron, and six prime ministers makes you feel the weight of 500 years of genius.