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Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires


The Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires is a public high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the tradition of the European gymnasium it provides a free, rigorous, multi-disciplinary education that includes classical languages such as Latin and Greek. The school is one of the most prestigious in Argentina. Many well known personalities, including two Nobel laureates, four Presidents of Argentina and a four-time Grammy awardee and six-time Oscar nominee have studied there.

History

Its origins date to 1661, when it was known as Colegio Grande de San Carlos, when the colonial government entrusted the Jesuit Order with the education of the youth. After the Papal suppression of the Jesuits from Spanish Empire-controlled South America in 1767, the institution languished until 1772, when governor Juan Jose de Vertiz y Salcedo reopened the school as the Real Colegio de San Carlos. Vertiz, already appointed Viceroy of the Rio de la Plata, renamed the school Real Convictorio Carolino in 1783, a name that endured until 1806. Thereafter, the school changed of name and program several times.

President Bartolome Mitre redesignated the institution as the Colegio Nacional in 1863, and since 1911 the school has been administered by the University of Buenos Aires. Originally only for men, the school has admitted women as students since 1957.

Nowadays, students from the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires rank among the best in most science olympiads, such as the IPhO, IChO and IBO.

Alumni

Alumni include many of Argentina's founding fathers, Presidents, members of political parties of all ideologies, internationally recognized scientists, artists and ideologists, and two Nobel laureates. A partial list includes:

Luis Agote - Devised the first effective method of blood transfusion

Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear - President of Argentina, 1922-1928

Manuel Belgrano - Leader in the Argentine War of Independence, creator of the national flag

Fabian Bielinsky - Award-winning Argentine cinema director

Miguel Cane - Writer, diplomat and lawmaker

Martin Caparros - Journalist, Writer.

Juan Bautista Egusquiza - President of Paraguay, 1894-1898

Bernardo Houssay - Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1947

Agustin P. Justo - President of Argentina, 1932-1938

Salvador Mazza - Epidemiologist who helped control Chagas disease locally

Father Carlos Mugica - Activist priest, assassinated in 1974

Jose Luis Murature - Foreign Minister of Argentina, 1914-1916

Carlos Pellegrini - President of Argentina, 1890-1892

Ignacio Pirovano - Noted surgeon, performed first local laparotomy

Nicolas Repetto - Co-founder of the Socialist Party of Argentina and Cooperative movement leader

Carlos Saavedra Lamas - Nobel laureate

Roque Saenz Pena - President of Argentina, 1910-1914

Lalo Schiffrin - Composer and pianist, born Boris Claudio Schifrin, Grammy-award winner and Academy award nominee

Facilities

The school offers a wide variety of activities and resources for the students, including a fully-equipped astronomy observatory, a swimming pool, a cinema, a sports campus with football, rugby, handball, volleyball and basketball courts. Many free classes are available such as astronomy, photography, languages, sailing, and martial arts. The sailing team is especially important, as it has won most of the local competitions.

Enrollment

Admission is a highly competitive process involving multiple exams after a year-long course. Every year 1,200 candidates intend to enter the school but only around 400 gain admission. Currently there are about 2,000 students, who pay no fees since the school is public and therefore free.

Building

Designed by French architect Norbert Maillart and opened in 1906, some of the most recognizable features of the French neo-classical building include the two symmetric white marble main staircases, the water fountain in one of the courtyards, the ornately-decorated assembly hall and its organ; and the Colonial-era tunnels that are accessible from the basement, notably from a hidden entrance behind the projection-screen area in the film auditorium.

See also

Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini

Instituto Libre de Segunda Ensenanza

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires


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