Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide

The Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide (English: Pontifical Urban College for the Propagation of the Faith) was established in 1627 for the purpose of training missionaries to spread Catholicism around the world (the Latin term "de propaganda fide" means “for the propagation of the faith”).

In a brief on January 27, 1624 he ordered the investment of money and the acquisition of the palazzo Ferratini in the Piazza di Spagna;[2] by the Bull “Immortalis Dei Filius” on 1 August 1627, the college was established.

[2][4] On 27 June 1641 a further Bull of Urban VIII abolished the college’s autonomous administration and brought it directly under the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

[2] In 1798, following the disruption surrounding the creation of the Roman Republic and the Napoleonic Wars, the college was closed and some of the students were received by the Lazarists at Montecitorio.

[5] In 1925 the Cardinal Prefect, Willem Marinus van Rossum (1854-1932) purchased the hospital of Santa Maria della Pietà on the Gianicolo Hill, and the seminarians transferred to this site, their current residence, on 2 November 1926.

After the teaching functions moved to the new university, the college building has continued to serve as the residence for the seminarians, which was inaugurated by Pope Pius XI on 24 April 1931.