Piaristen#

Piarists (Scholarum Piarum, teaching order), Catholic men's order devoted to the instruction and education of young people. Their founder, Joseph von Calasanz ( Kalasantiner), opened the first free elementary school in Europe in a Roman presbytery in 1597. The Piarists, sanctioned by the Pope in 1617, played a leading role in secondary school teaching in the 18th century, they ran 24 Gymnasium secondary schools in Austria and cultivated a rich repertoire of religious dramas of high literary value; present establishments in Vienna (Provincialate), Horn and Krems.