Base
Base
The Scuola Superiore di Catania is based in Via Valdisavoia 9 in a residential complex known as Villa San Saverio.
The Villa, set in an extensive historic garden, is the main building and has monumental value. There is an internal courtyard, a more recent second building and two other buildings: a gym and a refectory.
The Villa has about 50 student bedrooms and various communal areas: refectory, library, journals library, modern multimedia room, various study rooms, TV room, music room, billiard room, gym, ample internal courtyard and garden. Here the students can share time together and enjoy cultural exchange. Students are obliged to reside in the Scuola and actively take part in residential life.
There is also a 100-seat lecture theatre equipped with HD video, which can stream Scuola events, and various rooms for teaching and seminars, including a 50-seater and a reading room which is home to part of the Scuola library.
In the Villa’s garden, there is a small amphitheatre for plays, musicals and cultural events in general. There is also a multi-sport (football, tennis, basketball, volleyball) court.
The Scuola Superiore also has rooms for visiting Italian and foreign lecturers and other ‘personalities’ invited to meet the students during the cyclical seminars, laboratories and other events. These comfortable rooms need advance booking.
The Villa also houses the President’s and Administrative offices, as well as studies for professors and tutors.
Currently under construction another facility called “Etna building”, in which there will be a number of spin-off research laboratories, lecture theatres, seminar rooms, multi-media rooms and a Forestry area.
Facilities
The Scuola Superiore di Catania offers its students free of charge various residential facilities: board and lodging, library, journals library, reading rooms, multimedia room, study rooms, laboratories, music room, gym, multi-sport court, a janitorial and security service at reception, a laundry and room-cleaning service.
Villa S. Saverio’s history
Built in 1880, it was a holiday home for about 20 years. In 1898, the Valdisavoia Sicilian Agriculture Institute bought the Villa, converted it to a boarding school and extended the buildings bringing them to their current size.
In 1925, it was bought by Dr. Angelo Pennini on behalf of the College “San Luigi of Birchircana” of Malta, belonging to the Compagnia di Gesù, and used as a house of philosophy for students up to 1941.
Within 1940 and 1970 it was an “Apostolic School” and accommodated young people from all over Sicily before becoming a Jesuit community
In 2001, the Villa was bought by the consortium “Istituto Superiore di Catania per la Formazione di Eccellenza” and then, after careful restoration supervised by Catania’s Dept. of Cultural Assets to preserve a monumental architectural edifice, it became the residential and administrative base of the Scuola Superiore of the University of Catania.
Keeping faith with the long tradition of Villa San Saverio’s being a venue of residence and meetings for young people, today it houses Italian and foreign undergraduate and post-graduate students of Catania University. The residential model guarantees cultural and scientific exchange by rallying different languages, religions and life-styles