The school
Don Carlo San Martino Institute of Besana Brianza
Rigola, which today is a State-Accredited Comprehensive Institute including the Primavera Section, Nursery School, Primary School, and Lower Secondary School, has a long and fascinating history behind it.
In 1885, Don Carlo San Martino founded the Pio Istituto pei Figli della Provvidenza in Milan, with the intent of creating a serene and welcoming environment for young people in difficulty. It was 1889 when the first children crossed the threshold of the Villa di Rigola in Besana Brianza: Don Carlo San Martino had rented it for a year as a summer health resort to host the most sickly children living in the Milan headquarters founded in 1885 by the Pio Istituto pei Figli della Provvidenza. The positive experience prompted Don Carlo to purchase the villa and the surrounding land in 1890. During the Second World War, the Milan headquarters suffered serious damage, and so the girls living there were transferred to Besana Brianza. The elementary school began operating as an authorized private school in 1939 and established itself in Rigola after the war (1946) with the girls’ section; later, vocational and trade schools were opened.
In 1963, the vocational schools were replaced by the middle school, which had become compulsory. Alongside the girls, the Ancelle della Provvidenza sisters (known as “aunts”) were always present, creating a family atmosphere with their care and attention.
Over time, Rigola has transformed into a school open to the local area, to spread Don Carlo’s educational projects to all families.
The site of the Rigola school, whose original core dates back to the seventeenth century, is surrounded by a fine Italian garden and has large outdoor and indoor spaces: courtyards for outdoor play, recreation halls, dining rooms, a theater room, a gym, reading rooms, multimedia classrooms, science, art, and language laboratories, and a chapel. The ancient oratory of the Madonna della Neve is located within the park.
The Don Carlo San Martino - Rigola school
A digital journey to discover the spaces available to our children and young people
School system
From nursery to lower secondary school, we accompany students along a path of training and education.
In the Spring Section, a window of opportunity opens that transforms abilities into skills. It is a transition from knowing how to do things to the awareness of knowing how to do that specific thing.
In our Nursery School, we welcome children and accompany them into a new environment and in their relationships with other students, teaching them to recognize emotions, feelings, and personal needs.
In Primary School, children grow through self-awareness and develop their inclinations, in a journey full of experiences and emotions that lasts 5 years.
In Lower Secondary School, pre-adolescents grow through interaction with others, recognize their potential, develop their aptitudes, and orient themselves toward building a personal life project.
Pio Istituto Pei Figli della Provvidenza
Rigola is part of the Pio Istituto Pei Figli della Provvidenza, a Moral Entity recognized by the Lombardy Region
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