First Liceum and Priester Seminary in Tarnów

Abstract

The article, after the general introduction on general education and its relationship to the Church in post-war Poland, discusses the connections between the diocesan seminary in Tarnow, the Gimnazjum, and later First Liceum in Tarnow. These relationships were in fact particular. In 1837 was established the Institute of Philosophy, which was placed in a newly constructed building of the Seminary. In 1849 the Institute of Philosophy combined with the Gimnazjum as the two highest classes, which were still housed in the Seminary buildings. It is only after the construction of a new building for the Gimnazjum in the immediate vicinity of the Seminary, and partly on its territory, that Gimnazjum pupils not longer occupy space in the building of the Seminary. Once created the so called Minor Seminary (1901), his pupils were students of that Gimnazjum and after their graduation became the Seminary alumni. After World War II (1950) Communist authorities removed the alumni of the Minor Seminary from the Gimnazjum and Liceum, but the immediate vicinity of these institutions meant that a large percentage of Gimnazjum pupils were reported to enroll in the Seminary. The number of Gimnazjum graduates who chose the priesthood is impressive.