Università Cattolica
Our history
We are the most important Catholic University in Europe and the only Italian University to boast an impressive national network with our five Campuses in Milan, Piacenza, Cremona, Brescia and Rome, where the Policlinico Universitario “A. Gemelli” is located.
We are esteemed for our academic excellence, integrated in the European tradition as a place of cultural formation, able to contemplate and interpret the complexity of the society in which we live: a mission that translates into an educational syllabus focused on the formation of the person as a whole.
In the last 100 years we have shaped a significant quota of our country's establishment: eminent representatives of institutions, politics and law, academics and intellectuals, entrepreneurs and managers, teachers and professionals, bishops, journalists, publishers and writers. Plus, many others, known and less known, who have helped to promote the prestigious reputation of Università Cattolica in Europe and around the world.
Our story began in 1921, when Università Cattolica was founded by Father Agostino Gemelli together with a group of Catholic intellectuals: Ludovico Necchi, Francesco Olgiati, Armida Barelli and Ernesto Lombardo.
The previous year the Giuseppe Toniolo Institute of Higher Education had been created, named after the founder and promoter of Università Cattolica. On 7 December 1921 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore was officially inaugurated in Milan (in via Sant'Agnese), in the presence of the archbishop of the city, Cardinal Achille Ratti, future Pope Pius XI. In 1924, state recognition was awarded as a free university.
In 1927 the University acquired the ancient monastery of Sant'Ambrogio designed by Bramante and, on 30 October 1932, the edifice became the University main Campus. The redevelopment, restoration and expansion of the structure with new buildings was entrusted to the architect Giovanni Muzio.
In the post-war period the Piacenza campus was built and the first cohort of students enrolled for the 1952-53 academic year. In 1961 the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery was established in Rome. In 1964 the "Agostino Gemelli" University Hospital was inaugurated which, in 2015, was granted the title of Fondazione Policlinico Universitario “Agostino Gemelli” IRCCS. In 1965 the Brescia headquarters opened its doors and, in 1984, the first lectures began on the Cremona campus.
In 1919 Father Agostino Gemelli, Ludovico Necchi, Francesco Olgiati, Armida Barelli and Ernesto Lombardo, who were intensively involved in cultural and ecclesiastical matters, achieved their goal of immediately founding a Catholic University that would play an important and unavoidable role in the national culture.
Facing many difficulties, in February 1920 the Giuseppe Toniolo Institute for Higher Education was established, the founding body and guarantor of the Università Cattolica, named after the economist and sociologist, one of the most active protagonists of the Italian Catholic movement. On June 24 of the same year, the Institute obtained the decree of approval signed by Benedetto Croce, then Minister of Education, while Pope Benedict XV endorsed the University from an ecclesiastical point of view. Thus it was that a "victorious point of arrival for the Catholic movement, indeed, for the entire Italian ecclesial community" was marked. On December 7, 1921, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore was officially inaugurated in Milan, with a Mass celebrated by Father Agostino Gemelli in the presence of Cardinal Achille Ratti, Archbishop of Milan and future Pope Pius XI.
The first seat of the University was located in the palace of Luigi Canonica in Via Sant'Agnese 2 and only in October 1932 was it transferred to the ancient Cistercian Monastery of Sant'Ambrogio designed by Bramante and still the seat of the University today. In 1921, students enrolled in the first two active courses, Philosophical Sciences and Social Sciences, There were 68 of them. In 1924, after legal recognition by the Italian State, which allowed it to award degrees and diplomas with legal value - the Statute of Università Cattolica was approved by Royal Decree on 2 October 1924 and was published on 31 October in the Official Gazette - the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy and the Faculty of Law were born. In 1923 the Istituto Superiore di Magistero was established, which became independent in 1936 and was transformed in 1996 into the Faculty of Education. In 1926 the School of Political, Economic and Social Sciences broke away from the Faculty of Law to create the Faculty of Political, Economic and Business Sciences in 1931; until 1947, the Faculty would also award a degree in Economics and Commerce. In 1936 the Faculty of Political Science became independent.
Cattolica's commitment continued with intensity in the immediate post-war period, with the construction of new campuses and the creation of new degree courses. The Faculty of Economics and Business was officially established in 1947 and also offered an evening course. On 30 October 1949, in the presence of the then President of the Republic Luigi Einaudi, the first stone of the Faculty of Agriculture in Piacenza was laid, while the official start of the degree programme took place in November 1952.
On August 4, 1958, the decree establishing the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Rome was issued. The great dream of Father Gemelli, who also graduated in Medicine and Surgery in Pavia, of creating a medical faculty was coming true. The undertaking was arduous and complex due to the enormous difficulties to be overcome and it was necessary to wait until the end of the fifties for the construction of the Biological Institutes and the Polyclinic in Rome, later named after Father Gemelli himself.
In 1959 building works began and on 5 November 1961 John XXIII solemnised the birth of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. In 1967, the first doctors trained in this new medical school graduated, and today the Faculty includes two degree programmes, Medicine and Surgery and Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics. In the meantime, in 1965 the Università Cattolica was opened in Brescia with the Faculty of Education, thus inserting the University into the rich pedagogical tradition of the city. On the initiative of leading mathematicians, the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences was added to the academic offer in 1971.
During the 1990s, the School of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences (1990), the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures - now Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures (1991) - and the Faculty of Psychology (1999) were established at the Milan campus. In 1997 the Faculty of Economics of Piacenza, an offshoot of that of the Milan campus, became autonomous and the same happened in 2000 for the Faculty of Law, active since 1995 in the Emilia campus with a degree programme. In the academic year 2001-2002 the Faculty of Sociology was founded in Milan. Starting from the academic year 2012-2013, the Università Cattolica of Piacenza merges the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Law, while maintaining separate and autonomous degree programmes. Today, the University boasts twelve Faculties.
