Biography

The Institut Verdaguer is situated within Ciutadella Park. The building was constructed between 1716 and 1748 as part of the Ciutadella (‘citadel’ in English), the fortress built in the old La Ribera neighbourhood on the orders of Philip V and designed by the Flemish military engineer George Prosper Verboom (1665-1744). Only three buildings of the original complex have survived: Parliament, La Capella and the Institut Verdaguer, all of them in the French neoclassical style. In 1932, during the Second Republic, it became a secondary school run by the Government of Catalonia.