Liceo Ginnasio statale "Camillo Benso di Cavour" is the oldest

Liceo classico The ''liceo classico'' or ''ginnasio'' () is the oldest public secondary education in Italy, secondary school type in Italy. Its educational curriculum spans over five years, when students are generally about 14 to 19 years of age. Until 196 ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

and one among the oldest and most prominent

high schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, for pupils aged 14 to 19. It was transferred to its present location in 1931.

History

It was founded in 1568 with the name of ''Collegio dei Nobili'' (it. for ''College of Nobles'') by

Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy Emmanuel Philibert (; ; 8 July 1528 – 30 August 1580), known as (; "Ironhead", because of his military career), was Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 17 August 1553 until his death in 1580. He is notably remembered for resto ...

, after he moved (1563) the capital of his States from

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the southeastern ...

, and was assigned to

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

. For many centuries it has been the most prominent

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

in the

Duchy of Savoy The Duchy of Savoy (; ) was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy. It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy f ...

and thereafter (from 1713) in the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica among other names, was a State (polity), country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century, and from 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of ...

. In 1787 the College moved from its older Palace (assigned later to Accademia delle Scienze and to

Museo Egizio The Museo Egizio () or Egyptian Museum is an archaeological museum in Turin, Italy, specializing in Art of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses List of museums of Egyptian antiquities, one of the largest collections of ...

) to the Palace of the (suppressed) Convento del Carmine. It became a

Lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

(on December 23, 1805) in

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

annexed to the

First French Empire The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

. At the fall of

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, King

Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia Victor Emmanuel I (; 24 July 1759 – 10 January 1824) was the Duke of Savoy, King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from 4 June 1802 until his reign ended in 1821 upon abdication due to a liberal revolution. Shortly thereafter, hi ...

restored it as ''Collegio Reale Maggiore'' (Royal College) in 1818 and reassigned it to

. In 1848 after the

First Italian War of Independence The First Italian War of Independence (), part of the ''Risorgimento'' or unification of Italy, was fought by the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and Italian volunteers against the Austrian Empire and other conse ...

under King

Charles Albert of Sardinia Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard state from 27 April 1831 until his abdication in 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constit ...

it was the first

educational institution An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments a ...

in the Kingdom to come under direct control of the State. The College became a

in 1859 under the Law of Education of the

and courses began in 1860–1861; in 1865 the school was finally named after

Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (; 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as the Count of Cavour ( ; ) or simply Cavour, was an Italian politician, Statesman (politician), statesman, Business ...

; in these years (1861–1865) it was the leading high school of the capital of the united

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

. From 1911 to 1923 a Liceo Moderno was added to the Liceo classico. In 1931 the school moved to corso Tassoni, 15, in a new location, due to increasing numbers of students.

Teaching

The original curriculum (1568) focused on

Rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

; since 1848, the emphasis has been on

classical studies Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages ...

, mainly

and

Classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

, and (with changes made in 1923 and later improvements in courses of study) it still emphasizes on

Latin language Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

(from first to fifth year) and

Latin Literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literatur ...

(third to fifth year),

Ancient Greek Language Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

(first to fifth year) and

Ancient Greek literature Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, ar ...

(third to fifth year),

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

and

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, although with the increasing support of sciences.

Liceo Cavour today

Liceo Cavour provides good quality education, for which it has always been renowned in

. The school ranked first in the research made by the Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli and published in January 2009. By now it is a larger school than it has been for much of its history. In the 1870s there were about 350 students; today they are about 930–950. Almost all of the school's pupils go to universities after leaving. In 2009–2010 the TV Series «Fuori classe» was partially filmed at the school (the fiction, about an Italian high school and its teachers and students, has been broadcast from January 2011, by the Italian state owned public service broadcaster

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

Alumni

Liceo Cavour has a long list of distinguished former pupils, including

Luigi Einaudi Luigi Numa Lorenzo Einaudi (; 24 March 1874 – 30 October 1961) was an Italian politician, economist and banker who served as President of Italy from 1948 to 1955 and is considered one of the founding fathers of the 1946 Italian institutional ...

, who served (1948–1955) as second

President of the Italian Republic The president of Italy, officially titled President of the Italian Republic (), is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The presid ...

. Past pupils include the

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

Giuseppe Peano Giuseppe Peano (; ; 27 August 1858 – 20 April 1932) was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much Mathematical notati ...

, Agostino Richelmy, who served as Archbishop of Turin from 1897, and

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, the poet

Guido Gozzano Guido Gustavo Gozzano (; 19 December 1883 – 9 August 1916) was an Italian poet and writer. Biography He was born in Turin, the son of Fausto Gozzano, an engineer, and of Diodata Mautino, the daughter of Senator Mautino, patriot and supporter ...

(for three years),

Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese ( ; ; 9 September 1908 – 27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist. He is often referred to as one of the most influential Italian writers of his time. Early ...

(for three years), Ludovico Geymonat, Franco Venturi,

Raf Vallone Raffaele Vallone (17 February 1916 – 31 October 2002) was an Italian actor and footballer. One of the top male Italian stars of the 1950s and 1960s, he first became known for his association with the neorealist movement, and found success in ...

, and

Livio Berruti Livio Berruti (born 19 May 1939) is an Italian former athletics (sport), athlete who was the winner of the 200-meter dash in the 1960 Summer Olympics. He won five medals, at individual level, and three medals with the Italy national relays team ...

, the surprising winner of the 200 m in the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

Bibliography

*Golzio, Armando, ''Liceo Cavour. Progetto Educativo d'Istituto, 1996-1997'' (Turin, ''Liceo Cavour'', 1996), pages 9–19. *Kingdom of Sardinia, Law October 4, 1848, n. 819. *Kingdom of Sardinia, Law November 13, 1859, n. 3725. *Kingdom of Italy, Law March 4, 1865, n. 2229. *Martinengo, Maria Teresa
L'Università dà il voto alle scuole superiori. La ricerca promossa dalla Fondazione Agnelli. Il Cavour batte tutti.
«La Stampa», 28 gennaio 2009.
Fondazione Agnelli - Graduatorie Scuole Piemonte ("effetto scuola")
*Conti, Paol
«Fuori classe»: con la prof Littizzetto alla scoperta della scuola pubblica.
«Corriere della Sera», 15 agosto 2009. *Platzer, Tiziana
Al severo Cavour gli studenti giocano a fare il cinema. Nella scuola il set della fiction «Fuori classe».
«La Stampa», 20 gennaio 2011.

References

External links

Liceo Cavour online. Official school website
* Liceo classico Cavour. Detailed information from Wikipedia. Italian edition * Liceo classico. Detailed information from Wikipedia. Italian edition (the oldest schools) {{DEFAULTSORT:Liceo Classico Cavour Educational institutions established in the 1560s Schools in Turin Liceo classico Kingdom of Sardinia History of Turin 1859 establishments in Italy 1568 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire