The Collegium Ragusinum, sometimes also Rhagusinum, was the Jesuit college in the Republic of Ragusa, now the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. Following early Jesuit presence in Ragusa in the late 1550s, the college was established in 1658 and closed in 1773 with the suppression of the Society of Jesus. Its preserved church is dedicated to Saint Ignatius, and the other buildings now host a Catholic gymnasium and other Church facilities. The complex has been referred to as "considered to be the finest Baroque set of buildings in Dubrovnik, and - according to many - in all of Dalmatia."[1]
View of the Old City of Dubrovnik, with Jesuit college visible on the left
The college complex occupies a prominent location on the southern side of the Old City of Dubrovnik, with the seaside Walls of Dubrovnik to its immediate south. It is connected to the central Gundulić Square by a monumental stairway known as the Jesuit stairs (Croatian: skale od jezuita, Italian: scalinata dei gesuiti). The college buildings and church are arranged around a square that was known as Jesuit Square (Croatian: Poljana na Jezuvitima) until 1930 and was then renamed Boscovich Square (Croatian: Poljana Ruđera Boškovića) in honor of the former college's most famous alumnus, Roger Joseph Boscovich.
Jesuit college
Late-19th-century photochrom of the Jesuit stairs, college (then military hospital) and church
Nicholas Bobadilla, an early companion of Ignatius of Loyola, arrived in Ragusa in 1558 and stayed there for two years.[2]:292 It took about a century, however, to transform this early effort into a permanent establishment. This was in part because Ragusan attitudes to the Ottoman Empire were less unfavorable than the combative anti-Ottoman stance of the Jesuit order, a gap that was gradually reduced in the course the 17th century.[3] More prosaic issues of land ownership also played a role in the delays.[1] The college was eventually established in 1658 thanks to a prior gift of local philosopher and theologian Marin Gundulić of the prominent Gundulić family, who had died in 1647.
The devastating 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake ruined the fledgling college and killed many of its students.[2]:293 The current complex was then built on plans by Jesuit architect and artist Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709), then renowned for his prior work at the Roman church of Saint Ignatius. The church's construction was started in 1699 and completed in 1725.[4] A sculpted plaque dated 1481 showing angels holding a medieval YHS christogram above a Latin inscription,[5] was placed prominently at the base of the staircase leading to the College's entrance. It almost certainly comes from a religious building destroyed in the 1667 earthquake and viewed as a precursor of Jesuit iconography,[6] possibly the church of Saint Lucia that used to stand on the location of the Jesuit steps.[7]
In the 1730s, Roman architect of Sicilian descent Pietro Passalacqua[it] (1690–1748), also architect of the facades of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and Santa Maria Annunziata in Borgo in Rome, led a renovation of the college and built the so-called Jesuit stairs that connect it to the nearby Gundulić Square, with explicit echoes of the Roman Spanish Steps that had been created a decade earlier by Francesco de Sanctis.[6] At the same time, painter Gaetano Garcia decorated the church's apse with frescoes celebrating Saint Ignatius.[4]
Aftermath
After the Suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, the college became an educational institution under the local clergy, under the name Collegium Rhagusinum. That name in 1778 replaced the previous inscription Collegium Societatis Iesu at the top of the Jesuit stairs, with the date inscribed there (MDCCLXXV, for 1775 - now partly damaged) left unchanged.[7] The school was later run by Piarists until 1868, was later a military hospital, then a Catholic seminary, until the creation in 1941 of the current secondary institution, the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium "Ruđer Bošković".[8] The gymnasium has been referred to as "the best high school in Dubrovnik."[9] The building now also houses the Diocesanseminary of Dubrovnik (Croatian: Biskupsko Sjemenište).[10]
The University of Dubrovnik also traces its origins partly to the college.[11] Its first logo, adopted in 2003, included a picture of the Jesuit stairs.[12]
In popular culture
The college's buildings and church have regularly served as background stages for theatrical performances during the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.[1]
Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, a seaport and the centre of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Its total population is 41,562. In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in recognition of its outstanding medieval architecture and fortified old town.
Dživo Franov Gundulić, better known today as Ivan Gundulić, was the most prominent Baroque poet from the Republic of Ragusa. He is regarded as the Croatian national poet. His work embodies central characteristics of Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation: religious fervor, insistence on "vanity of this world" and zeal in opposition to "infidels". Gundulić's major works—the epic poem Osman, the pastoral play Dubravka, and the religious poem Tears of the Prodigal Son —are examples of Baroque stylistic richness and, frequently, rhetorical excess.
The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius is a Latin Catholic titular church, of deaconry rank, dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, located in Rome, Italy. Built in Baroque style between 1626 and 1650, the church functioned originally as the chapel of the adjacent Roman College, which moved in 1584 to a new larger building and was renamed the Pontifical Gregorian University. It is one of the great 17th century preaching churches built by Counter-Reformation orders in the Centro Storico.
The Church of the Gesù is the mother church of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a Catholic religious order. Officially named Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù, its façade is "the first truly baroque façade", introducing the baroque style into architecture. The church served as a model for innumerable Jesuit churches all over the world, especially in the central Europe and then in the Portuguese colonies. Its paintings in the nave, crossing, and side chapels became models for Jesuit churches throughout Italy and Europe, as well as those of other orders. The Church of the Gesù is located in the Piazza del Gesù in Rome and is one of the great 17th century preaching churches built by Counter-Reformation orders in the Centro Storico.
Francesco Maria Appendini was an Italian Latin and Italian scholar who studied Slavic languages in the Republic of Ragusa. The French invasion prevented him from returning to Italy, and he adopted Republic of Ragusa as his own country. He took it upon himself to investigate its history and antiquities.
Andrea Pozzo was an Italian Jesuit brother, Baroque painter, architect, decorator, stage designer, and art theoretician.
The Republic of Ragusa was an aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in South Dalmatia that carried that name from 1358 until 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its motto was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", a Latin phrase which can be translated as "Liberty is not well sold for all the gold".
Trpanj, is a municipality of Dubrovnik-Neretva County in south-eastern Croatia.
Gesù Nuovo is the name of a church and a square in Naples, Italy. It is located just outside the western boundary of the historic center of the city. To the southeast of the spire, one can see a block away the Fountain of Monteoliveto and the piazza of the church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi. The square is a result of the expansion of the city to the west beginning in the early 16th century under the rule of Spanish viceroy Pedro Alvarez de Toledo. The square of Gesù Nuovo contains three prominent landmarks:
The Roman College was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school through university level and moved to several successive locations to accommodate its burgeoning student population. With the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII, the final seat of the Roman College was built in 1584 near the center of Rome's most historic Pigna district, on what today is called Piazza del Collegio Romano, adding the church of St. Ignatius in 1626, and a renowned observatory in 1787. The college remained at this location for 286 years until the revolutionary Capture of Rome in 1870.
The Basilica di Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine is a titular church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St Apollinare, the first bishop of Ravenna.
The architecture of Croatia has roots in a long history: the Croats have inhabited the area for fourteen centuries, but there are important remnants of earlier periods still preserved in the country. The historic architecture of most old towns on the coast is Venetian, a legacy of the Venetian empire. The Habsburg and Ottoman empires also influenced the architecture of the region.
Croatian art describes the visual arts in Croatia, and art by Croatian artists from prehistoric times to the present. In Early Middle Ages, Croatia was an important centre for art and architecture in south eastern Europe. There were many Croatian artists during the Medieval period, and the arts flourished during the Renaissance. Later styles in Croatia included Baroque and Rococo.
Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare is a former pontifical university in Rome, named after St. Apollinaris of Ravenna. Its facilities are now occupied by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
Roger Joseph Boscovich was a physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, theologian, Jesuit priest, and a polymath from the Republic of Ragusa. He studied and lived in Italy and France where he also published many of his works.
Paladino Gondola was a Ragusan diplomat and merchant, a member of noble Gondola noble family.
Diocesan Classical Gymnasium "Ruđer Bošković" is a classical gymnasium in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is affiliated with and operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dubrovnik. It is named after former student Ruđer Bošković.
The Church of St. Blaise is a Baroque church in Dubrovnik and one of the city's major sights. Saint Blaise, identified by medieval Slavs with the pagan god Veles, is the patron saint of the city of Dubrovnik and formerly the protector of the independent Republic of Ragusa.
Dubravka is a drama of mythological-pastoral content and allegorical meaning written in the mid-third decade of the 17th century by the Croatian author Ivan Gundulić. It consists of three acts with a total of 28 scenes and 1,696 verses, written in double rhymed dodecasyllables and octosyllables.
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