The Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria San Isidro (IES San Isidro) is a co-educational day school for pupils from 12 to 18 years of age. It is located in the historical
Calle de Toledo
The Calle de Toledo is a historic street in central Madrid, Spain, running across the Centro and Arganzuela districts.
History and description
Straddling along the Centro and Arganzuela districts, it starts at the Plaza Mayor and ends at the G ...
in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
It is one of 66 secondary schools established in provincial capitals and other major cities under the 1836 Plan General de Instrucción Pública. Most of these schools occupied the premises of disentailed convents and other church buildings. Originally a boys' school, it became coeducational and state-owned in the second half of the 20th century. The school occupies part of a site belonging to several earlier schools, indirectly tracing its origins to 1346, and is considered the oldest non-university education center in Spain.
San Isidro has educated eight
Spanish prime ministers and was formerly referred to as the "nanny" of Spain's statesmen.
With the
discovery of the Americas
The prehistory of the Americas (North America, North, South America, South, and Central America, and the Caribbean) begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an ice age. These groups are generally believed to have ...
, the school gained importance in educating young men who would later become a credit to the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
. It has four Nobel Prize laureates among its alumni:
José Echegaray
José Echegaray y Eizaguirre (19 April 183214 September 1916) was a Spanish civil engineer, mathematician, statesman, and one of the leading Spanish dramatists of the last quarter of the 19th century. He was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Li ...
,
Jacinto Benavente
Jacinto Benavente y Martínez (12 August 1866 – 14 July 1954) was one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922 "for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious ...
,
Vicente Aleixandre
Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates ma ...
, and
Camilo José Cela
Camilo José Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquess of Iria Flavia (; 11 May 1916 – 17 January 2002) was a Spanish novelist, poet, story writer and essayist associated with the Generation of '36 movement.
He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Literat ...
.
[
]
Heritage
The school occupies part of the site
originally belonging to several former education centers, including
the Reales Estudios de San Isidro (1625–1809), formally known as the Colegio Imperial (–1625).
It was built on land donated by Empress Maria of Austria.
The current building includes the baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
(1672), a baroque staircase and an elegant chapel (1723). On the stairs is a small museum dedicated to science and education.
From 1847 to 1936, Madrid's School of Architecture (Escuela Especial de Arquitectura, now Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid, ETSAM) occupied part of the premises of the Institute, together with the secondary school and other schools and departments.[ In 1936, it moved to its current site at Ciudad Universitaria.][, José Manuel (in Spanish)]
''Aprendiendo a ser arquitectos: Creación y desarrollo de la Escuela de Arquitectura de Madrid (1844-1914)'', pp. 201-4. Editorial CSIC - CSIC Press, 2004.
Google Books. Retrieved 21 January 2019. The School of Architecture's coat of arms remain over the main entrance to the Institute.[
The school has a museum on the ground floor with a recreation of a school class and four floors of various interests.
]
Notable alumni
The former pupils of San Isidro are known as "Old Franciscans".
The school has educated a wide range of notable figures including four Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
laureates[ and eight Spanish prime ministers.]Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
, the great majority of them joining the Nationalist side, with around 200 being killed during the two-year conflict. In addition, 12 Old Franciscans from the Blue Division
The Blue Division ( es, División Azul, german: Blaue Division) was a unit of volunteers from Francoist Spain within the German Army (''Wehrmacht'') on the Eastern Front during World War II. It was officially designated the Spanish Volunteer D ...
died fighting in the Eastern Front during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.[, Leonor; ''El Instituto San Isidro: Saber y Patrimonio, Apuntes para una Historia'' (2014).]
See also
* List of the oldest schools in the world
This is a list of extant schools, excluding universities and higher education establishments, that have been in continuous operation since founded. The dates refer to the foundation or the earliest documented contemporaneous reference to the sch ...
* Colegiata de San Isidro
* Colegio Imperial de Madrid
* List of Jesuit sites
This list includes past and present buildings, facilities and institutions associated with the Society of Jesus. In each country, sites are listed in chronological order of start of Jesuit association.
Nearly all these sites have bee ...
References
Bibliography
*, Javier; , Francisco José
"La conformación del Colegio Imperial de Madrid (1560-1767)."
''Anales del Instituto de Estudios Madrileños'', LIII, pp. 135–175. Madrid, 2013
*, Vicente, ''El Instituto San Isidro: Saber y Patrimonio, Apuntes para una Historia'' (Madrid, Editorial CSIC, 2013, )
*, José Simón, ''Historia del Colegio Imperial de Madrid: Volúmenes I y II'' (Madrid, Instituto de Estudios Madrileños, 1959, )
External links
*
Madrid Oculto – Short documentary of San Isidro
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Isidro
Schools in Spain
Secondary schools in the Community of Madrid
Schools in Madrid
Educational institutions established in the 14th century