Roman College
The Roman College (Latin: Collegium Romanum, Italian: Collegio Romano) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).
It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school through university level and moved to several successive locations to accommodate its burgeoning student population.
With the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII, the final seat of the Roman College was built in 1584 near the center of Rome's most historic Pigna district, on what today is called Piazza del Collegio Romano, adding the church of St. Ignatius in 1626, and a renowned observatory in 1787.
Though taken over by the Italian government, the original buildings on a full square block memorialize the early commitment of the Jesuits to education.
Then in 1551, to make up for the shortage of public schools in Rome and to provide for better training of both religious and secular clergy during the Counter-Reformation period, the Roman College was founded,[1] open only to men.
Jesuits were the first pupils: Edmond Auger (French), Emmanuel Gomez (Portuguese), John Egnazi (Florence), and Emerio de Bonis (Mantua).
Due to flood damage in that part of the House of Frangipani, and because of the growing number of students, the Roman College in 1558 moved to the house of Giovan Battista Salviati, that connected to the back of the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata, on the east side of today's Piazza del Collegio Romano.
Then in 1581 with funding from the Pope and his relatives, on 11 January 1582 his nephew Cardinal Filippo Boncompagni laid the foundation stone for the new college building, designed by Florentine architect Bartolomeo Ammannati.
After the canonization of St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1622, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV, financed the construction of much larger church named for the new saint.
The flat ceiling and missing dome were frescoed by painter Jesuit Brother Andrea Pozzo, in a style that creates the illusion of depth (photo on right).
The German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, "Master of a Hundred Arts", was a professor at the college and left on the premises a museum filled with his works.
[5] The Jesuits were particularly drawn to astronomy and had a large observatory tower and scientific laboratories constructed on the roof of the annexed church, in 1787.
The Library of the Roman College, the most notable of Rome, was removed in 1873 and merged into the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II.
After the restoration of the Jesuits, Pope Leo XII on 17 May 1824, with the brief Cum Fine, ordered the restitution of the Roman College with the outbuildings and church of St. Ignatius to the Society of Jesus.
In this new site the school of philosophy and theology, with the official title of the Pontifical Gregorian University of the Roman College, resumed, fostered and protected by Pope Leo XIII.
1 - Main Observatory of equatorial Merz telescope .
2 - Main staircase to the Observatory.
3 - Observatory for the Ertel meridian circle .
4 - Observatory for the telescope of Cauchoix .
5 - Observatory electric tower with small lead ball.
6 - Antenna with globe dropped at midday as signal to fire the cannon at Castel Sant'Angelo (now on the Janiculum ).
7 - Electric cables transmit signals from meteorological sensors on Calandrelli Tower to meteorograf recorder housed in room below main observatory.
8 - Rear of St. Ignatius facade.
9 - Back of Church of St. Ignatius.
11 - Tower Terrace.
12 - Roof of Palazzo Montecitorio, now the Chamber of Deputies.