The institute was founded by Royal Ticket on March 9, 1827 for the purpose of promoting and encouraging in the island the moral, literary and industrial education of youth. In 1856, following the suggestions of Abbot Aporti, the institute created the kindergarten under the direction of a lay teacher, while the kindergarten was founded in 1854 with a check given by the City Hall. In 1861, the charge of its direction and operation passed to the nuns of the Community of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul, a charge they have uninterruptedly maintained to this day. The contribution of the sisters proved to be very positive, but their role became more precise starting in 1868 with the arrival of Sister Maria Calcagno as Superior, a woman of exceptional gifts in whom the very strong feeling of charity was united with an inexhaustible will to do, and in fact she immediately worked to increase the premises that were totally inadequate to accommodate an ever-increasing mass of guests. Subsequently, in addition to the infant schools, provision was made for the creation of an educandato destined for the training of the institute’s future teachers, which could be attended both by wealthy families who could pay the tuition fee but also among the poorest families, initiating a process of literacy in the city. The Institute’s activities continued in relation to the economic development of society at the time until the eve of World War II.
On May 13, 1943 many bombs fell on Villanova, hitting among others, the church of St. Dominic and the kindergarten building. The blockhouse was hit hard with the serious loss of classrooms and refectories, the parlor, recreation rooms, as well as the nuns’ rooms, services and courtyards. The nuns were displaced to central Sardinia.
Among the few things that were saved was a register with an inventory of the correspondence of the Carlo Felice Fund from 1809 to 1912, which made it possible to partially reconstruct the events of the Asylum. Once the war was over, the prestige and educational excellence of the Institute led to the complete reconstruction of the building in a few years.
