1864 - 2014FEDAC GUISSONA - MARE DE DÉU DEL ROSER

DOMINIQUES DE L’ANUNCIATA

150 years of a great School

From 1864...Saint Francesc Coll i Guitart was born in Gombrèn – Ripollès- in 1812 and died in Vic –Osona- in 1875. He joined the order of Sant Domènec and founded the congregation of the Dominiques de l’Anunciata in 1856.He toured Catalonia as a missionary and visited Guissona where some people suggested him the foundation of a school of his nuns. The purpose became real and the school began the teaching tasks the academic year 1864 – 65.

The convent and the school were settled in Raval del Coma, in a house that belonged to Ramon Folch. The first nuns of that community of Guissona were Josefa Vidal and Agnès Arbó, with the collaboration of sisters Eulàlia and Teresa.

Soon they moved to the present building known as the Convent of Santa Mònica. In 1900 Joan Folch i Bellet donated the convent-house.The sisters had to pay all the repair works. The Bishop of La Seu, Cardinal Casañas contributed with a donation of 1500 pessetes ( 9 euros). Later, the community hosted Ms Rosa Puncernau Begué; when she died in the convent school, the nuns got her heritage.

On the 24 July 1936, during the Spanish civil war, the committee of Guissona ordered the nuns to leave the convent and school. Several homes in the town welcomed the nuns, and from there they could reach the respective families. The building (convent and school) served as housing for refugees from war first, then barracks of soldiers of the republic. After the civil war in February 1939 the Dominiques reached to be resettled in her school.

THE BUILDINGIn 1638, Sant Josep de Calassanç sent twoScolopi to Guissona to found the first house of the Escoles Pies in Spain.The Segadors war made it go wrong , and in 1641 they stopped the works. Thevillage of Guissona agreed to give a term of six years to follow with that foundation or, otherwise, the site would be offered toanother order.Once the deadline finished the site was given to the Agustins Descalços de Santa Monica in Barcelona who restarted the work and took possession in 1651 with the name of the convent of Santa Monica, where they took care of the sick and dying. In 1700 was laid the first stone of a new church, and work was completed in 1745. After Mendizabal’s confiscation in 1835, the site passed to private hands, the church was occupied by a garage while the convent was used as a school by the Dominiques Sisters.

In the building behind the convent, first had care of the children secular priests: from 1907 to 1933 the Germans de les Escoles Cristianes (or Germnas de La Salle); from 1945 to 1971 the Germans Maristes. In September 1971 the Germans Maristes left and the academic year of 71-72 was the first year that the Dominiques sisters had all classes mixed.

To 2014...Now the school belongs to the DOMINIQUES PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION PARE COLL, for short FEDAC. The foundation was approved on the 14 April 2009, the year of the founder Father Coll canonization.

The academic year of 2010-11 begin the studies of ESO (secondary school), in the centre and also begin the works of the new building next to the older one.On 9th October 2011 is the official opening of the new centre and there are gradually added all the levels.The academic year of 2013-14 the whole ESO cycle is completed in the new, roomy building.