Garden of Knowledge

There are places where history speaks with greater intensity. 

There are places that have witnessed dialogues and encounters involving people that have influenced the course of mankind. 

There are places that history considers crossroads of thought and relations, where some of the most distinguished minds of all time have met and thrived.

The Almo Collegio Borromeo is one of those places.

It was 1561 when the 22-year-old Charles Borromeo dissatisfied with the ruling class of his time, decided to found what Vasari would define the “Palace of Knowledge” and become one of the most prestigious university Collegio in the world aiming at supporting the education of particularly capable young laymen with limited economic possibilities.  

Scholars, politicians, doctors and scientists. It is impossible to properly describe the numerous illustrious students of the Collegio and the historical figures who have approached it.

However today a new chapter in that impressive, endless history is about to be written.

With the great pandemic in 2020, the Collegio's current Dean decided to redevelop and open to the city of Pavia a vast green area- once planted with vegetable gardens and orchards to meet the students’ needs but totally abandoned for decades- in order to provide a space of beauty, community and relationship for all.

This aim for public sharing of an important private space requires new works and interventions to strengthen the magnificent historic architecture of the Collegio in line with its centuries-old history. This is the goal of “Garden of Knowledge”: adding the contemporary piece to a mosaic that has been growing and renewing for nearly 500 years.

Here, among history, art, nature and beauty, contemporary architecture is to continue that narrative that seamlessly celebrates the splendor and prominence of one of the world's most prestigious cultural institutions.