Historia del López de Mendoza (inglés)

Cardenal Lรณpez de Mendoza State Upper School

Burgos

Text: José María Alonso Pascual Photography and layout: Emilio Serrano Gómez Translation: Aaron Boggis Edition: Instituto Cardenal López de Mendoza

BURGOS, COLLEGIO.- “I hereby order that in the city of Burgos a report is to be made of hospital or school, whatever the testamentaries think best where, with building and rents, up to fifteen or sixteen thousand ducats are employed”.

(From the testament of the Cardinal Don Íñigo López de Mendoza Transcripción de literal pone a Ismael García Rámila)

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Portrait of the Cardinal by Rigoberto González Arce (1953)

Born in the year 1489? In Peñaranda de Duero? (Burgos). Son of don Pedro y doña Catalina; he was grandson to the Constables of Castile. He studied in Salamanca. In 1520 he was appointed Bishop of Coria (Cáceres), in the year 1529 Bishop of Burgos and then in 1531 Cardinal, with the title of Saint Nicholas in carcere. He died in the year 1535 and was buried in the La Vid Monastery (Burgos).

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BUILDING Once the so-called “Orchard of morality” was chosen as the site for the construction of the building, the building work began in 1538 and finished in 1579, as the plaque on the main façade, allusive to the founder, his noble lineage and the date of completion, reminded us until 2002: HIS MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND REVEREND SIR CARDINAL AND BISHOP OF BURGOS, SIR IÑIGO LÓPEZ, SON OF THE COUNTS OF MIRANDA SIR DIEGO DE ZÚÑIGA Y AVELLANEDA AND LADY CATALINA DE VELASCO, GRANDSON OF THE COUNTS OF MIRANDA SIR DIEGO LÓPEZ DE ZÚÑIGA AND LADY ALDONZA DE AVELLANEDA, GREAT-GRANDSON OF THE COUNTS OF PLASENCIA SIR PEDRO DE ZÚÑIGA AND LADY ISABEL DE GUZMÁN, ORDERED THE SCHOOL TO BE BUILT IN HIS WILL. THE CONSTABLE AND COUNT SIR PEDRO DE VELASCO AND THE COUNTESS LADY MENCÍA DE MENDOZA, HIS WIFE, WERE ALSO HIS GRANDPARENTS. SIR PEDRO DE VELASCO, FOURTH CONSTABLE OF THOSE OF HIS LINEAGE HAD IT BUILT. IT WAS FINISHED IN THE YEAR MDLXXIX Founding plaque.

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ARCHITECTURE As a whole, it is representative of the Renaissance style with Gothic elements; the hallway and the broad stairs add a palatial air. Various master stonemasons took part, among whom Pedro de Resines stands out. The stone used comes from Hontoria de la Cantera.

The section of the main façade is higher than the remaining three. The draft of the building has some well-proportioned measurements and, therefore, many of its sections and spaces comply with the divine proportion or golden ratio.

THE MAIN FAÇADE The façade, with a well-framed ashlar, consists of seven walls separated by buttresses. It is finished off by two round turrets, in the style of the ancient fortresses, in either extreme with the Cardinal’s essential coat of arms and covered by a scant cornice with fine mouldings.

The central wall, without doubt the most architecturally and sculpturally beautiful part of the building, is composed of three sections. The lower one is home to the main round-arched door flanked by two detached, ringed columns with voluted Ionic capitals; two medallions with bearded faces adorn the spandrels. The second section houses the foundation plaque, above which stands out the Cardinal’s coat of arms held up by two figures.

The upper section is distributed in two parts: one formed by the window which gives light to the choir on whose sides there are two supporting figures and two coats of arms of the Cardinal’s parents and the other, a vaulted niche flanked by columns, is home to the sculpture of Saint Nicholas, who in a blessing posture presides over the façade and gave name to the Private School for almost two hundred and fifty years. The sculptors responsible were Diego Guillén and Antonio de Elejalde.

The main façade.

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ESCUDO THE COAT OF ARMS It is divided into four quarters corresponding to the meaningful elements from the coats of arms of their ancestors: sash and chains, from the Zúñiga family; vairs surrounded by castles, from the Velasco family; passant wolves, from the Avellaneda family; Hail Mary with bands, from the Mendoza family. The Cardinal’s cap and the knotted cords with various ramifications are expressions of his high ecclesiastical position.

Replicas of the Cardinal’s coat of arms mark both the inside and the outside of the building including the wall.

THE HALLWAY

Above, the Cardinal’s coat of arms; below, commemorative plaque and portrait of Rodrigo de Sebastián.

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It has an almost square shape and conserves its original cobbled paving; its vault consists of Gothic ogives. The cloister entrance door is decorated with the biblical sentence INITIVM SAPIENTIAE EST TIMOR DOMINI (The beginning of wisdom is the Lord’s fear). The Virgin with the Child is from the 1940s. A stone plaque commemorates the creation of the “Merimée-de Sebastián” summer courses in 1908, the first in Spain, in honour of its creators Ernest Merimée, professor at the University of Toulouse and of Rodrigo de Sebastián, professor of this State School.

THE CHAPEL With its two levels, it takes up the left side of the façade incorporating the choir which is situated above the hallway and to which a spiral staircase leads. The groin vault consists of Gothic ogives. It had an altarpiece, which was the work of the sculptor Antonio de Elejalde. The two slabs built-in to the balustrade of the choir, with scenes from the Passion of Christ, are remains of the previous altarpiece; in the middle of them, there is a splendid coat of arms belonging to the Cardinal.

In the year 1869 it became an ceremonial hall and in 1871 the Renaissance ashlar was brought from the Vileña monastery (La Bureba) from which the fore part has been missing since the 1940s. The vault keystone dated 1944 reminds us of the important restoration work on this and other spaces within the building. The stained glass windows, which had deteriorated somewhat, were restored in 1993.

The picture of the Immaculate Conception is one of those which remained when the Provincial Museum was established temporarily in the State School in the 19th Century. A stone plaque is dedicated to the Civil Governor Francisco García del Busto by the first headmaster of the State School thanking him for his effort in transferring the Provincial State School of Secondary Education to this building in 1849. Another reminder in Latin is Queen Isabella II of Spain’s visit in 1861. A third, which can be placed together with the previous one, refers to the visit made by the Infanta Cristina in 2002.

The Chapel-Events Hall.

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Above, a plaque in honour of Queen Isabella II of Spain and, right, a plaque commemorating the Infanta Cristina’s visit.

Translation of the text in Latin The Queen Isabella accompanied by her venerable husband Francisco came to the house dedicated to public teaching on the 17 August 1861. The teachers of the School in Burgos, in order to remember this important event, engraved this reminder in stone as a testimony to its grateful love and appreciation towards the King and Queen.

THE LOWER CLOISTER AND COURTYARD The walls have appeared recovered since the renovation of 1860. In addition, in 1999 the medium-height ledges were taken out down to the floor level, something which enhances its beauty, provides greater light and allows the garden to be seen. Beside the reception there is the bell whose chime, in former times, announced the arrival of the headmaster and the department heads at the State School.

Following the direction of the hands of the clock, a series of 66 stone plaques remind us briefly but meaningfully of other illustrious characters who were born in Burgos or its province or related to it. The series begins with that of the founder of Burgos Diego Porcelos in 884 and finishes with that of Master Fray Enrique FlĂłrez in the 18th Century. One or two are out of place as they were transferred from cardboard and wood to stone in 1949.

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The interior courtyard is square and consists of two galleries formed by lowered arches which rest on joined pilasters; four small coats of arms belonging to the Cardinal’s ancestors decorate the ledges of the upper gallery. This is the starting point for the proportionate distribution of the whole building. The parapet of a well, dry today, and a centenary fir tree draw our attention. The cleaning operation carried out in 2008 has brought back the courtyard’s original splendour. In the middle of the last century, two peacocks brought colour to

The Cloister courtyard with sculptures

by C. Cubillo.

Testudo hermanni, mediterranean tortoise

this already beautiful area. Nowadays, an octogenarian tortoise spends almost half a year in a state of lethargy buried at the foot of a small magnolia and the other six months awake and walking about under the sun’s rays. It has already become the school mascot and has been named “Léntula” (‘Slow Coach’) by the pupils.

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THE HEAD TEACHER’S OFFICE

The head teacher’s office.

Previously situated next to the staffroom, it was moved, in the renovation in 1999, to the space taken up by the room dedicated to Raimundo de Miguel, who taught in our State School from 1845 until 1861. He was known for his book on Spanish-Latin grammar and his Latin-Spanish dictionary.

A stone plaque in the lobby pays tribute to this distinguished teacher.

A portrait of the Cardinal by the art teacher Rigoberto González Arce (1943) dominates the office. There is a 19th

Century table and the left-hand wall is home to a portrait gallery of almost all the school’s head teachers since its creation.

Among the portraits which are not present, that of Ana María Abadía Díez, the first headmistress (1967-69), deserves a mention.

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A plethora of diplomas and gifts from illustrious visitors fill this small space. There is also a painting to commemorate the creation of the State School in 1845. The beautiful Sèvres porcelain vase, cobalt blue in colour, was a gift from the inspector of the Academy of Paris, following his participation in the 1923 summer courses.

The standard is at the foot. It is embroidered with the City’s coat of arms.

Above, the Sèvres vase; below, the City gold medal; to the left, the State School Standard.

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THE STAFF ROOM

The Staff Room.

It is a library and a staff room. The State School has created an important library both by way of direct acquisitions – the most common- and contributions from the monastery libraries, a consequence of ecclesiastical confiscation and donations. Sometimes it has been quoted as the Town Library.

The donation of the private library made by the professor of Castilian language Eloy García de Quevedo y Concellón can be pointed out. On creating the Diego Porcelos State Upper School, the funds from the library, like many other things, were shared out.

Two worm-eaten beam headrests, decisive in the renovation in 1999 and converted into sculptures, and a 19th Century mirror form part of the decorative elements. The door which opens out to the garden was put in place in 1909 by ripping out a window and the fly roof of the shelves corresponds to the year 1920. The library possesses some 20,000 copies,

also found in the pupils’ library and the departments. One of them contains the sentence: “take and read”.

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THE PUPILS’ LIBRARY In 1987 this area which had been a classroom was assigned to be a library to receive part of the department funds and provide the pupils with the opportunity to use the usual copies. The current furnishings were installed in the summer of 2007.

The portrait of Queen Isabella II of Spain stands out.

Its author is unknown and it was no doubt donated, as a result of the Royal visit, by the city and carefully restored in 1993.

This library also contains a piece of furniture from former times: most of the few which remain are dispersed throughout the different areas. A stone plaque reminds us of the Minister of Education’s visit Jerónimo Saavedra for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the creation of the State School of Secondary Education. In this very celebration, the City Council awarded the School with the City’s gold medal.

The Pupils’ Library.

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Above, a panoramic view of the garden; below, an example of a giant sequoia and its didactic card.

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THE BOTANIC GARDEN The vast vegetable garden which, at the beginning, bordered that of the Mercedarian Fathers to the East, with the walls of the Santa Dorothea Monastery to the South and to the West with the limits of the river Cardeùuela, today channelled under Carmen Street, became smaller and smaller, owing in part to the diverse constructions that have been added over the years to the old building. On the Private School becoming the State School’s headquarters and, above all, on the Department of Agriculture being created in 1876, the vegetable garden, which in bygone days more than provi-

ded for the boarding school’s pantry, became the Botanic Garden with more didactic than practical ends in mind. Nowadays, the didactic aspect blends with the ornamental.

One part has a rather French style, hedges and yew trees whimsically pruned and an inhabited pond. A pompous yew growing freely, rather chilly palm trees, pomegranate trees with eye-catching flowers, centenary chestnut trees, a tortuous weeping willow, other varied plants and abundant rose bushes give a slightly melancholic air to the garden sheltered by the warm old stones. An outstanding nearly two-hundred-year old sequoia, recorded as the tallest in our province, rises above a haughty coat of arms which adds nobility to this corner.

Area gardened in the French style.

THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Since 1999, it has occupied an indisputably privileged area, which astounds us with its immeasurable beauty and contents. The Rector’s residence in the School, whilst it was private, was not in vain. From the creation of the State School for the public he admitted the Art Department; the art professors from the initial years used their effort and wisdom to embellish it. The decoration, the beautiful and allusive allegories of the Arts, Sciences and Letters and to the Cardinal can be 15

attributed to them. In addition to medallions bordered with historic personalities, there is a high-quality oil painting of Saint Paul from the 18th Century in a semicircular frame which came from Saint Paul’s Monastery, attributed to Romualdo Pérez Camino - another one of those who remained when the State School became the Provincial Museum’s headquarters. What is more, the State School’s head teachers were also the Provincial Museum’s directors.

Main room of the Natural History Museum.

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The roofing beams and the coffered ceiling are decorated, as is the cornice, with gold-plated roses. In 1996, before beginning the last alterations to the building, the paintings and the coffered roof were restored. From this date onwards the Science Department has made a great effort with the conservation, organization and, first and foremost, improved the educational use of the museum. The abundance of exhibits and material has forced it to take up space in the adjoining choir of the chapel.

Professor José López de Zuazo and his pupils in the Natural History department’s laboratory (1914).

José López de Zuazo, professor of natural history, is widely known as the museum’s creator. In 1905, following the transformation of the departments, he was assigned some premises to exhibit teaching material and the examples of stuffed animals spread around other parts of the State School.

This consisted of a laboratory to complement the collections and to facilitate practical work and a classroom, in the form of a lecture hall, in which “the willing pupils find themselves sitting comfortably”. He also drew up and published a Catalogue of the Natural History Department.

It is impossible to describe here how much space a whole book would have taken up, and the overflowing

Natural History Museum (1914).

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shelves. The general approach concurred with that of the scientific departments of the upper schools of those times to which the scientific institutions gave their blessing: scientific institutions such as the National Museum of Natural Sciences, the Royal Botanic Garden, the Mining and Geological Institution of Spain. Also important were the personal resources of Dr Velasco’s Operations Department at the Faculty of Medicine in Madrid or those of the Royal Household. It fits the description of the classic museum model: giving the pupils a lesson in natural history through the contemplation of its vast range of animals, plants, vegetables, minerals, rocks and fossils etc.. something which was practically impossible to do any better in those times.

Some fine examples representative of Iberian fauna, among others, fill its display cabinets. Many of the examples, abundant in the last century, are now listed as endangered

Models of a pea, a human thorax and some elaborate representations and Orang-utan.

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An anatomical exhibit of a toad and Siamese goat kids.

An opaque projector and a ‘paraffin bath’.

species. Among the abundant flora, there is a herbarium donated by Elías Gutiérrez Gil, head of natural sciences from 1948 to 1981, to whom a classroom was dedicated by his pupils and colleagues after his retirement. This classroom was that of the former study.

It is possible to find here very original, more beautiful and valuable exhibits from every point of view, but above all the didactic: for example castic models of plants, vegetables, animals and human organs; elaborate representations of biological cycles of life forms harmful to agriculture or, on the contrary, of materials beneficial to humans after practical development; collections of seeds, agricultural models, minerals, rocks, fossils and wall charts. These materials and classroom and laboratory equipment from those times seem so very strange to us today. The collection of Stone Age axe heads found in the province of Burgos and donated by Professor Rodrigo de Sebastián y Ribes are especially significant.

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THE SAINT NICHOLAS PRIVATE SCHOOL

The book of the Ceremony Table.

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Once the edifice had been built, the decision over its use was not without some disagreement, and even after deciding that it would be a private school, over its management and administration. However, the founder’s will to favour the poor and humble of the Bishopric of Burgos was always respected and so, between the Archbishopric and the City Council, agreements were reached and consequently it became a reality in the 1601 Concord and was ratified the following year

by Philip III of Spain. Pope Paul V gave his blessing to the agreement by stating “that School with its Church or Chapel under the advocacy of Saint Nicholas”.

Soon after, the ‘Constitutions’ were drawn up – reaching 36 in number-, principles and rules which regulated every aspect of the Private School’s life: the naming of the Vice-Chancellor (the first was Diego Martín de Arresti), the selection of the schoolchildren, study plans, coexistence, etc. In

the first selection, the number of schoolchildren stood at 12.

To those constitutions, the Ceremony Table was added, precursor to the modern internal regime Regulations; although not physically at first, it says precisely: “the first and foremost ceremony is that of punctual obedience in everything”. The description of the “habit of the schoolchildren and the dressing of the chambers” takes up the first part. It was regulated from the complete distribution of the day and behavioural guidelines to punishment for absenteeism. There were strict rules, some curious, some surprising, yet on the whole universally valid, although rather different from those of today: “those who play cards or dice will go without food”, to quote but one.

The Constitutions and Ceremony Table had one objective: “to breed good clergymen”.

With the 1621 Ceremony Table in manuscript, the now State School possesses a subsequent typographic copy acquired a little time ago in a bookshop which purveys old documents.

Life at the Saint Nicholas Private School went by at a monotonous pace and sometimes in decline, for example at one time using part of the building as a warehouse for grain and wool. Its educational activities were cut short with Napoleon’s arrival in 1808. His army seized it as with other noble, religious and residencial buildings in the city.

THE PROVINCIAL STATE SCHOOL OF SECONDARY EDUCATION During the reign of Queen Isabella II, the “Pidal Study Plan” was published on 22 October 1845, by virtue of which the State Schools of Secondary Education were created, one in each province. The regional Board of Governors, at whose head was Francisco García del Busto, appointed the prestigious Burgos lawyer Manuel Martínez González as interim Director of Secondary Education and as Secretary the logic professor Eduardo Augusto de Bessón.

In the first academic year 259 pupils enrolled, but classes were imparted temporarily in the Saint Jerome Seminary. The following year the State School acquired the category of “First Class”.

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Plaque commemorating the creation of the Provincial State School of Secondary Education.

In the year 1847, Juan Antonio de la Corte y Ruano-Calderón, Marquis of the court, professor of geography and history was elected to be headmaster. After some hard and tenacious negotiations to evict the Artillery Corps, who had made it their home after the expulsion of the French army, from the solid building, the former Saint Nicholas School was selected as the new State School. As often happens, there were protests from parents complaining that a building more than three hundred metres from Saint Mary’s Arch had been chosen.

On 1st October 1849, the academic year was fully inaugurated in the noble mansion which became an State School. The work of Juan Antonio de la Corte, who also created the Provincial Boarding School on the upper floor at his own expense, can not be underestimated.

Eduardo Augusto de Bessón, a member of the Academy of Jurisprudence and logic professor, had arrived from Madrid and would also become headmaster. In 1878 he was the City Mayor. Among his responsibilities and activities was that of public prosecutor of the provincial high court. He had the pedestrian bridge, which was named after him, built at his expense.

The amount of teachers of any subject with a very complete academic curriculum and interesting publications really catches one’s attention. To give a good example, the professor 22

The Bessón Bridge.

of mythology José Martínez Rives, who in 1866 sent to the Academy of Spanish Language a third volume of Don Quixote, “which will soon come out into the light again”. He woke the Knight of the Sad Figure and made him walk after a long and profound dream in the Atapuerca cave.

The City and the Private School never turned their backs on each other, but it was during its time as a State School that they worked together most. With the creation of the Department of Agriculture, the growing resources in the Physics and Chemistry Department, the incorporation of teachers and professors with new qualifications and, on changing from the State School of Secondary Education into a General and Technical State School in 1900, this collaboration increased in practically every aspect of life in Burgos and its province.

In 1859, the Meteorological Observatory was created by Royal decree. It provided the City’s official temperature and its data was sent to Madrid. It was affiliated to the Physics and 23

Chemistry Department and provided this service until 1991.

The Physics and Chemistry Laboratory, with municipal and provincial laboratory functions analysed Burgos’s drinking water. It is documented that it had to deal with the analysis of flax and wine in Pancorbo or that the citizens of Aranda de Duero asked it for analyses of the water on their lands at a cost of five pesetas.

At the same time, the State School became a destination for gifts of any material that could have been used for didactic ends, from important personalities, who visited the City and the State School, not to mention from former students. The involvement of the State School in the City’s life

The meteorological observatory and, below, the belfry of the Carmen church (1914).

can be summed up in the figure of Eloy García de Quevedo y Concellón, former pupil, teacher from 1902 to 1944, Deputy Headmaster of the State School and the summer courses. He was also Mayor of Burgos. His companions and pupils dedicated a classroom to him with some beautiful words. The City showed its appreciation with a well-written plaque on number 16 Paseo del Espolón.

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The Teachers’ Senate in 1914.

Standing in the centre, Eloy García de Quevedo.

THE NATIONAL STATE SCHOOL OF ‘MEDIUM’* EDUCATION CARDENAL LÓPEZ DE MENDOZA At the proposal of the teacher’s senate, a ministerial order on 17 September 1957 gave the National State School the name of Cardenal López de Mendoza, in just honour of the founder of the noble building.

The following year the 50th anniversary of the creation of the summer courses was fully celebrated. Vice-Chancellors from the University of Toulouse and the University District of Valladolid, among other academic authorities, were present.

The City got ‘dressed up’ with the Mayor and other authorities from all the official organisms participating in the ceremonies prepared to that effect. In St Mary’s Arch, the academic part was celebrated with brilliant speeches and decorations. In the name of the French State, the Légion d’honneur prevailed over the other authorities involved in the courses. The Secretary of the courses Luis Martín Santos, professor of philosophy, played an outstanding part. The Botanic Garden has his name carved on a small monolith at the foot of the sequoia.

*Educación media and Educación secundaria would translate to mean the same in English. For this reason, the term ‘Medium’ Education has been used to show the difference although it is not a term used in English.

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It is paramount to mention some of the many personalities who took part in the ‘Summer Courses’, called at the beginning “the Union of French and Spanish Students”, as well as the State School’s teachers and the successive co-directors and secretaries of the courses. Without undermining the importance of the participation from France always of high status and renown, on the Spanish side the poet Pedro Salinas and the writer María Teresa León really stood out. To be added to this list are the chemist Obdulio Fernández and the painter Marceliano Santamaría, both dignitaries from Burgos. The novelist Miguel Delibes gave conferences and lectures that, as with many others, were published and have become indispen-

The Vice-Chancellor of Valladolid Ignacio Serrano and, on his right, the Vice-Chancellor of Toulouse Paul Dottin in the centre of the procession of St Mary’s Arch.

sable for students of Spanish literature.

The State School Cardenal López de Mendoza made true the comment of the prestigious French newspaper L’impartial that, in July 1908, on giving the news of the creation of the summer courses and valuing the choice of this “establishment” in which they were held, said “in every concept it is to be found at the level of the very best in Spain” 26

The playground partition; on one side the girls and, on the other, the boys.

On the girls’ side now lies the sports centre and the laboratories.

The City was growing and the educational demand too and even though there were numerous private schools, the State School had high academic prestige – the old building was getting too small. Therefore a new section, basically a classroom block and a ceremonial hall, was built in 1960-61 and renovated in the summer of 2002. The sports centre and the caretaker’s house were added in 1968.

The enrolment of pupils increased continuously and considerably, which led the State School to separate the sexes, both physically and legally. The photography from 1963 of the partitioned playground has become essential to review the event.

In 1967 the Diego Porcelos State School was created and because it was in a remote and undeveloped area, the Boys’ State School was transferred to this site by decree. All of which left the old building for a single-sex state school for girls, which gave way to administrative possibilities, unthinkable today, to the division or transferral of almost all the wealth of the State School. Following the “Villar Palasí” Educational Law in 1970, all the State Schools became mixed and ours no longer carried the title ‘Girls’ School’. It was already too late.

With the growing educational demands, the teaching activity also increased and, at the same time as the Logse (an educational law reform) was implemented in state and private schools, ours put forward an offer of high teaching standards.

In 1985 the International Baccalaureate was introduced to the School.

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Panoramic view of the State School buildings.

Sculpture by C. Cubillo from a worm-eaten beam headrest.

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THE STATE SCHOOL OF SECONDARY EDUCATION As a consequence of the gradual implementation of the Logse, the State School was renamed in 1992, being called State School of Secundary Education.* In the academic year 1998-99, the years 1st and 2nd of E.S.O (12-14 years of age) joined the older pupils at the School receiving their classes in the building of the former Father Aramburu Private School.

In November 1996, on discovering much of the beam woodwork on the first floor to be worm-eaten, the pupils were evacuated from the classrooms of the old building. In this way its last important renovation work, which also affected the office area, was carried out. On the inside wall of the secretary’s office, a stone plaque dedicated to Modesto Díez del Corral, professor of mathematics from 1907 to 1942, remains. On the outside wall a memorial plaque speaks of the renovation. Opposite the office area, a modern lift occupies the site where, until 1991, the Alliance Française had its headquarters.

The State School continues to fulfil its ordinary educational role, holding recurrent congresses or academic activity days which affect both the city and its province. Along these lines and stepping over these limits, on 19 September 2002, the State School held the full ceremony of the Official Opening of the School Year 2002-2003 for the whole of Spain, presided over by Her Royal Highness the Infanta Cristina of Bourbon and Greece.

Mayor of Burgos, Ángel Olivares; President of the Junta de Castilla y León; Juan Vicente Herrera; her Highness the Infanta Cristina; Education Minister, Pilar del Castillo and the school Headmistress Pilar Cristóbal.

Nowadays, academic life continues normally, teachers change and their number increases along with social circumstances and the ethnic and cultural diversity of the pupils. The building is still standing and the State School, descendent of the St Nicholas Private School, fulfils, with dignity, the City’s wishes which its founder, Íñigo López de Mendoza, had in mind.

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Studies Offered First and Second Cycle of Secondary Education.

Baccalaureate LOE International Baccalaureate Baccalaureate at night classes Baccalaureate on distance courses School Community Number of pupils: around 1,400 Teaching Staff: 118 Administrative Staff: 4 Subordinate Staff: 5 Workers: 6 Parents’ Association Former Pupils’ Association Address Plaza Luis Martín Santos s/n. 09002 Burgos webpage: www.lopezdemendoza.es Bibliography and documentation Fuente Martínez, Constantino de la, La Divina Proporción en el Instituto Cardenal López de Mendoza. Un análisis de las proporciones del antiguo Colegio de San Nicolás. Sigma. Revista de Matemáticas, nº 33. Bilbao. 2008.

García Rámila, Ismael, El Instituto Nacional de Enseñanza Media Cardenal López de Mendoza de Burgos. Excma. Diputación Provincial de Burgos.1958; 2ª edición 1995.

López de Zuazo, José, Catálogo del Gabinete de Historia Natural.

Imprenta y Librería de los Hijos de Santiago Rodríguez. Burgos.

1913.

Pérez Manrique, Juan Carlos y Zaparaín Yáñez, María José, Merimée – de Sebastián. 1908-2008. Francia y España: cien años de encuentro en Burgos con Toulouse. Instituto Municipal de Cultura del Ayuntamiento de Burgos. 2008.

Ruiz Vélez, Ignacio y Pampliega Pampliega, Rafael, El Colegio de San Nicolás. Instituto Cardenal López de Mendoza (1538-1967). Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Diputación de Burgos. 2007.

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Palatial Staircase.

Born from love to science and from love to men, A lot of sweat and tears have contemplated the walls of this noble mansion; ours just one more.

Professor Francisco J. Ortiz Sáez

Printed in Spring 2009 Mrs María Luz García Parra being Headmistress

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