FUNDACIÓN COLEGIO Nª Sª DE LA ANTIGUA.

In the doctoral thesis entitled “Methodological and compositional process of the Renaissance in Galicia. 1499-1657 “, whose author is D. Víctor Grande Nieto, simple data are given that clarify the time that lasted the construction of the School of Nª Sª de la Antigua. The concrete text is the following:

“Receiving the plans of the College, made by the Jesuit Andrés Ruiz, made the Cardinal to see the teacher Vermundo Resta, whose name appears linked to Ruiz as coauthors of the College initiating the signature of the Contract of 1592, but Vermundo himself was in Seville in 1592, being his contribution as master teacher of works of the Sevillian miter5 what made him be an advisor to Don Rodrigo in this factory, making certain changes, but without his being a predominant role in terms of the general conception of School.
With the arrival of Juan de Tolosa and later of Simón de Monasterio the initial traces of the set will be modified.
The main part of the construction was developed between 1593 and 1619: the church, the main facade and part of the bodies that are articulated around two patios placed on both sides of the church are finished. Then the works stopped and practically nothing new was built until 1919, date in which two cloistered canvases were finished and new dependencies were made in the back. “

He was born in Monforte de Lemos, on September 22, 1877, dying in Barcelona, ​​May 12, 1939) was a magistrate, prosecutor, jurist and Spanish politician.
He studied at the College of Nª Sª de la Antigua, PP. Escolapios de Monforte de Lemos. He graduated in Law from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1903, and in 1905 he approved the examinations of prosecutor and judge. After the proclamation of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in 1923 he was appointed member of the Organizing Board of the Judiciary, where he gained great prestige as a specialist in criminal and procedural matters. In 1924 he was appointed judge of the Chamberí district and in 1929 he represented Spain in the International Criminal Conferences of Paris, Brussels and Budapest.

In spite of his past linked to the primoriverist dictatorship, on May 31, 1931 he was appointed Prosecutor of the Republic, although he resigned on July 31 to be appointed magistrate of the Supreme Court of Spain. In the general elections of 1931 he was elected deputy for the Radical Republican Party in the province of Lugo. In the Spanish Cortes he participated in all the discussions about the organization of the judicial power in Spain, which would confront his party, which would end up abandoning. He did not stand for election in 1933 and continued as Magistrate of the Supreme Court.

Since the Civil War began, on August 26, 1936 he was appointed president of the Third Chamber of Contentious Administrative Matters of the Supreme Court of Spain, and on September 16 he was appointed Special Examining Judge of the cause for the insurrection in all the barracks and military cantons of Madrid. In the instruction he kept the legal formalities, which did not please the extremists, who demanded an exemplary punishment of the coup plotters, to the point that he was removed from the investigation for having admitted from General Joaquin Fanjul Goñi the evidence he had proposed. On August 27, 1937, he was appointed President of the Court Inspection Board of Madrid. In October 1937 he moved to Catalonia, where in June 1938 he defended the officials of the Courts of Barcelona accused of fifth columnism.

When the republican troops left Catalonia in January 1939, he decided to stay and offered to collaborate with the new regime, but was arrested and on February 26 was prosecuted for the death of General Fanjul and the deaths in prison Model Madrid on 23 August 1936. He was condemned to death and executed in Barcelona on May 12, 1939 together with General Fernando Berenguer de las Cagigas

The shape of the dome is hemispherical, the average orange characteristic of the Spanish Renaissance. Its light is approximately 10 m and the key of the dome of its torch rises just over 35 m above the level of the pavement. The inner surface is slightly banked. It is reinforced by eight double ribs that protrude both inside and outside. The outer surface, also hemispherical, is not concentric with the interior, but its center moves downwards. The thickness is, therefore, variable and decreases as it rises.
The lantern rises above the oculus, with six windows, covered by a semi-spherical and banked dome. The dome is surrounded by a balustrade and is completed with a high pyramidal pinnacle with a square base topped with a metal cross with a weather vane. The drum that supports the dome is cylindrical. Its interior surface is uniform throughout its height, but its backyard, however, shows two distinct parts. In the lower one, from the cornice to the level of the trestle of the roof, the extrados is octagonal and the structure robust, while in the upper part the wall is noticeably thinned and its transverse, cylindrical in this area, rises and reaches a higher level than that of the imposts of the interior orange stocking. Dome and drum are set on an inner circular cornice, and is on the set of four pendentives and four arches and pillars torales.
(Taken from ROSA ANA GUERRA PESTONIT Arquitecta).

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UNIT OF MEASURE USED in the construction of the school (data taken from the Manuel Ángel Feal Antelo study). Freire Tellado has previously investigated the unit of measurement in the school. Comparing the measurements described in the historical documents with those taken in the building, 3 possible values ​​for the foot are obtained:

a) 281.27 mm
b) 296.06 mm and
c) 282.222 mm.

In the end, based on other verifications, the next foot value used in the construction of the Cardinal’s school was chosen.                                   

Unit Multiple Submultiple
Units School pie vara 1/2 * -1/3 -1/4 -1/8 – 1/16
Centimeters 28.22 cm 84.66 cm 14.11 -9.41 -7.06 -3.52 -1.76

This study should be taken with caution, since different stonemasons who were successful at work may have used different measures. Even so, the unit has proven to be consistent in later studies. There are some coincidences with the rules given by Palladio, Simón García and Fontana. In the book by Andrea Palladio I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (1570) includes the descriptions and drawings of several ancient domes. It follows that Fontana from the drawings of Palladio established a rule of 1/9 for the thickness in the starts.

The dome of the College coincides with two of the rules of Palladio. The first coincidence is the thickness of the starts. In the School, the maximum light is 36m and the outer radius is 44m. The difference between the corresponding radios is 4 feet, which means 1/9 of the section.

The foot of today: If we move by the information that is given today about the size of the foot unit, we find this definition “The foot is a unit of length of artificial origin, based on the human foot, already used by civilizations ancient.” To measure the length, in almost all the world the meter is used, except in Anglo-Saxon countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, which is usually used the foot. The exception is in aeronautics, in which the height is still measured in thousands of feet in almost all countries. The equivalence to meters is the following:

1 current foot = 30.48 centimeters = 0.3048 meters
1 meter = 3.2808 feet

The Roman foot, or pes, was equivalent, on average, to 29.57 cm; the Carolingian foot, formerly called the Drusian or Drusian foot -pes drusianus-, was equivalent to nine eighths of the Roman, that is, approximately 33.26 cm; and the Castilian foot was equivalent to 27.8635 cm.

The first entry of the month of May we want it to be dedicated to the Virgin, because this is her month according to our tradition. The Virgin of Antigua is an invocation of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin is usually depicted standing with the baby Jesus in her arms offering a white rose. This image is in the Cathedral of Seville. Probably it is a Castilian-Leonese invocation of the Middle Ages.
This dedication, holder of our School, is doubly present in the church of the school of Our Lady of the Ancient of Monforte de Lemos. This is due to the fact that Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro Osorio, archbishop of Seville, was a devotee of this Virgin, founded this school which he placed under this invocation and ordered to bring to him a copy of the Virgin of Antigua of Seville, which He had in his oratory for his particular devotion. The painting is from the 16th century. Francisco de Moure made a sculpture of this Virgin that is in the center of the main altarpiece.
The virgin is usually represented with a white robe, as well as a cloak that covers her head and shoulders. The fabric of the tunic and mantle are white and decorated with golden vegetable motifs. On the underside of the mantle is dark and golden stripes. The neck of the Virgin’s tunic is curvilinear. With one hand he holds a white rose and with the other he holds the Baby Jesus. The boy has a dark tunic with golden vegetable details. The Virgin holds the child above the hip, next to his chest. The Child’s tunic has a neck with a slightly pointed toe. Both the Virgin and the Child appear with aura. In the upper part there are two angels holding a crown on the head of the Virgin. The baby Jesus has no crown.
Let us ask Our Lady of Antigua, in this month of May, to protect our school and bless the students, their families as well as the teachers and employees of their school.

He was born around 1884 in Monforte de Lemos. He was a student at the PP school. Escolapios de Monforte de Lemos. During his youth he also cultivated the drawing.
He graduated in Law from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1897, and was part of the Military Legal Corps, with fates in Mahón, Palma de Mallorca and Seville (1913). In this Andalusian city he attended the workshop of the painter Manuel Alarcón, where he learned painting and restoration, which led him to authenticate works of art, and to make the catalog of some collections of individuals, both Spanish and foreign. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, being proposed in 1934 to fill the vacancy produced in the Painting Section by the death of José Ramón Mélida Alinari, as an art critic. He entered on September 21, 1939.
He was a contributor to periodicals such as ABC and Blanco y Negro. Méndez Casal, who was an academic at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, 2 died in Madrid on January 14, 1940.1 He has a dedicated street in his hometown.

On the occasion of the celebration of the 20 years of the “Association Camiños a Santiago pola Ribeira Sacra” and organized by this association took place on Saturday April 27 a magnificent concert by singer-songwriter Amancio Prada. The interesting repertoire included ancient themes and some more current, full of feeling, depth and strength.
Amancio Prada was born in Dehesa del Bierzo, León. It has endowed the song of author in Spain of a great elegance. His music, largely popular roots, is composed of his own compositions and songs based on texts by the most diverse ancient and modern poets, such as Rosalía de Castro, Federico García Lorca, Agustín García Calvo and Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio.

He debuted in Paris in 1973 and a year later he published his first album “Vida e morte”, composed of six songs in Spanish and another in Galician. His artistic presentation in Spain took place in 1975, in the Little Theater of Madrid. From then on, his performances took place on stages in Spain and abroad

In the photo Amancio Prada with Fr. Javier Agudo, Manager of the Foundation Nª Sª de la Antigua School, before beginning the magnificent concert he offered us.

Awards
Gold Medal of the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (2001)
Medal of Castilla y León Award for the Arts (2005)
Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts (2010)

Outstanding works
• Life and death
• Lelia Doura
• Spiritual canticle
• Dark love sonnets
• Roses to Rosalia
• From sea to terra
• Songs of the soul
• Until another day, Chicho
• Artist’s life Songs of Léo Ferré
• Living love concert

Carlos Salgado, a physicist from the University of Santiago de Compostela and former student of our College of Nª Sª de la Antigua Piarist Fathers , was born in Monforte de Lemos in 1971. He left school in 1985. He is director of the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics. He is a professor of Theoretical Physics. He is currently investigating about states of matter immediate to the Big Bang. He has just received a grant called “Advanced Grant” for his research of 2.5 million euros.

The objective objective of the project led by the director of the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics, is supported by the funding of the “European Research Council (ERC)” that has just granted “Advanced Grant” aid, for a period of five years. The project is entitled “Yoctosecond imaging of QCD collectivity using observable jet” (YoctoLHC).

The “Advanced Grant” grants are designed to support scientists “exceptional leaders in terms of originality and meaning of their research lines”. OR ERC provides financing for the development of frontier science with excellence as the main selection requirement.

He was born in 1862 and died in Monforte de Lemos on August 19, 1955. He studied at the College of the Piarists or the Cardinal. He was the municipal prosecutor of Monforte (1908), president of the Monforte Agrarian Catholic Federation (1921-1922). During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, he was appointed mayor of Monforte de Lemos on January 13, 1924. He replaces Manuel Dapena Rodríguez. He was Mayor until March 13 of that same year, 1924 when he left the mayor’s office.
He was a provincial deputy. Member of the Seminary of Galician Studies. He was Professor of Law at the University of Valladolid. He collaborated in Archives of the Seminary of Galician Studies (1927) and in the Wool Bulletin Provincial Commission of Historical and Artistic Monuments of Lugo.