Producer history
The Salesian congregation was founded in 1859 by the priest and teacher Giovanni Bosco (Becchi, Piedmont-Sardinia, 1815 - Turin, 1881), who in 1872 also created the female order of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (1872). On May 6, 1886, he visited Girona to promote the foundation of a Salesian congregation, whose mission was to see to the training and education ¿ material and spiritual ¿ of marginalized young people. As a result, many of the city¿s patricians supported actions to promote these activities.
The society inherited a piece of property in the Pont Major neighborhood: La Manola In 1891, Felip Rinaldi, then director of the Sarrià Workshops (Barcelona), sent the Galician priest Manuel Benito Hermida Pérez and the cleric Dionisio Vicentin to Girona, who took up residence at Carrer de Pedret, 128. From there, they worked to restore the old Manola country house, located at number 97 on the same street, and transform it into the Salesian residence in the city.In 1893, they inaugurated the Sant Isidre school farm, with accommodation for young people and cultivated fields, groves and orchards to teach the students about agricultural work. It was the first school farm that the Salesians had in Spain. It combined Catholic education with agriculture, so that the children of the most disadvantaged Girona peasantry could receive a good education. Father Santiago Ghione was in charge of consolidating it. It received an ever-increasing number of students, many of whom boarded at the school.
When the space became too small, the idea arose to build, next to the old farm, the sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians, which after numerous snags became a reality in 1901. Ghione¿s successors continued to expand on the work of the Salesians in Girona. In the 1924-1925 school year, a new primary school opened next to the school farm, and in 1928 a seminary for the training of young Salesians was also added. For this, a new building had to be erected. In the 1930s, they stopped teaching agricultural subjects and focused on academics and religion.
After the hiatus caused by the Spanish Civil War, the Salesians resumed their activity, and in 1953 the school became a minor seminary. In 1972, the decrease in students led the order to rent part of the farm to the Ministry, which also used it for education. In the 1977-1978 academic year, the seminary moved to Mataró, and shortly thereafter Bishop Jaume Camprodon entrusted the Salesians with the management of Santa Eugènia parish. Currently, the old Salesian school in the Pedret district of Girona is the Institut Narcís Xifra Masmitjà vocational school.
Archive history
Before the collection was submitted to INSPAI for digitization, the postcard collection was kept in the Salesian Provincial Archive of Barcelona, located in the Salesian Provincial House in the Sarrià neighborhood, at the end of Passeig Joan Bosco and Plaça Artós, where the Salesians probably arrived from Girona at some point in the second half of the 19th century.
Details of entry
On August 1, 2008, José Ramon Alberdi Alberdi, historian of the Salesian Provincial Archive of Barcelona, submitted to INSPAI 25 postcards related to the history of the Salesian congregation in Girona with the aim of digitizing them and returning them to the Salesians. On September 30 of the same year, INSPAI returned the originals to José Ramon Alberdi.
