Cambridge is a market town that became one of the world's great university cities. Colleges line the river, and the town green where football rules were written is still a public park. Here are the facts and stories behind it.
10 curiosidades sobre Cambridge
- Una universidad fundada por fugitivos: la Universidad de Cambridge se remonta a 1209, cuando un grupo de estudiosos dejó Oxford tras un conflicto con los vecinos y se instaló aquí.
- Football's rule book was drafted here: in 1848 students who played on Parker's Piece wrote down an early set of football rules. A sculpture on the edge of the green commemorates these Cambridge Rules.
- A park named after a cook: Parker's Piece takes its name from Edward Parker, a cook who held the lease on the land when it was still used for grazing.
- A lamp post with a nickname: the gas lamp where the paths cross in the middle of Parker's Piece was put up in 1893. In the 1960s students started calling it Reality Checkpoint.
- Un memorial a una tragedia polar: el Scott Polar Research Institute se fundó en 1920 en memoria del capitán Robert Falcon Scott y los cuatro hombres que murieron con él al volver del Polo Sur. Su edificio de Lensfield Road, obra de Herbert Baker, se inauguró en 1934.
- A ceiling like no other: King's College was founded by Henry VI in 1441, and the first stone of its chapel was laid in 1446. The chapel has the largest fan vault in the world.
- Un reloj que se come el tiempo: el Corpus Clock, en la esquina del Corpus Christi College, lo inauguró Stephen Hawking en 2008. Una criatura metálica llamada Chronophage trepa por su esfera dorada, y el reloj es irregular a propósito: solo marca la hora exacta de vez en cuando.
- The secret of life, announced in a pub: on 28 February 1953 Francis Crick walked into The Eagle and, by James Watson's account, told the lunchtime crowd that they had found the secret of life. A plaque by the door marks their discovery of the structure of DNA.
- A bridge with a myth: the wooden Mathematical Bridge at Queens' College was first built in 1749. A popular story says Isaac Newton built it without bolts, but he had died more than 20 years earlier.
- Una ciudad joven: pese a su antigüedad, Cambridge no obtuvo el rango de city hasta 1951. Frente a la Great Gate del Trinity College, donde estudió Newton, crece un manzano que descendería del de su casa familiar.
La historia de Scott y la carrera al Polo
In January 1912 Captain Scott and four companions reached the South Pole, only to find a tent and a Norwegian flag: Roald Amundsen's team had arrived about five weeks earlier, on 14 December 1911. On the return journey all five men died of cold, hunger and exhaustion. A search party found the tent with the bodies of Scott, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers in November 1912. Frank Debenham, a geologist on Scott's expedition, became the driving force behind a research institute in their memory, and the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge became one of the world's leading centres of polar science.
The Backs y el punting, explicados
The Backs is the stretch where several colleges, including Queens', King's, Clare, Trinity and St John's, back onto the River Cam with lawns and meadows running down to the water. The best way to see them is from a punt, a flat-bottomed boat pushed along with a long pole. In Cambridge, punters traditionally stand on the flat deck at the back, while in Oxford they usually punt from the other end.
Qué comer en Cambridge
- Chelsea bun: un bollo en espiral, pegajoso y lleno de pasas de Corinto. Fitzbillies, en Trumpington Street, los hornea desde que abrió en 1920.
- Cambridge burnt cream: el nombre local de la crema quemada, un postre asociado desde hace mucho al Trinity College.
- Té de la tarde en Grantchester: sube por el río a pie o en punt hasta el Orchard Tea Garden, donde se alojó el poeta Rupert Brooke, y toma scones en una tumbona bajo los manzanos.
- Una pinta en The Eagle: además de la placa del ADN, la sala del fondo tiene un techo cubierto de nombres y números de escuadrilla que dejaron aviadores de la RAF y estadounidenses en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Antes de ir
- La mayoría de los colleges cobran entrada y cierran a veces, sobre todo en época de exámenes, en mayo y junio.
- Choral Evensong in King's College Chapel and several other college chapels is free and open to everyone during term.
- For a view over the rooftops, climb the tower of Great St Mary's, the university church opposite King's College.
- Ely y su catedral están a un corto trayecto en tren y son una excursión fácil de medio día.
Descubre Cambridge con World City Trail
Our Cambridge scavenger hunt turns these sights into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around three hours, with about 35 minutes of walking. Along the way you visit Parker's Piece and the Scott Polar Research Institute.
En cada parada resuelves un acertijo y escuchas una historia breve, a tu ritmo. Puedes empezar cuando quieras y jugar en español, inglés, alemán, francés, italiano o neerlandés.
Juega a la búsqueda del tesoro de Cambridge →
Datos comprobados en octubre de 2026.