The Guiu Academy opened in Barcelona in 1892. It is a date that is difficult to place: six years remained until the loss of Cuba, the Passeig de Gràcia was still under construction and the Sagrada Família had been under construction for a decade.
What follows is the story of the academy told by the family itself, based on the interview we conducted with Manuel Guiu , grandson of the founder.
1892: a science graduate who begins teaching
Manuel Guiu Casanova was born in Barcelona and graduated with a degree in science. He started teaching to earn a living and ended up opening an academy. There was no business plan behind it: it was just a teacher with students.
The first location was on Pelayo Street , and the project was initially geared towards the city's bourgeois families. According to family lore, names like the architect Batlló and the Marquis Robert passed through those classrooms.
Passeig de Gràcia, when it was still a construction site
The academy expanded to Passeig de Gràcia, which was still under construction at the time. During this period, it became known for a very specific specialty: training engineers and architects.
It was not an easy recognition. "Despite the numerous difficulties that Catalans faced in gaining recognition of their prestige in other Spanish communities at that time," Manuel Guiu points out regarding that period.
And there's a detail that perfectly illustrates how academic prestige worked back then. Degrees issued in Barcelona weren't valid, but those from the School of Engineering in Vilanova i la Geltrú were. Many students took their exams there and came here to prepare, recommended by the Vilanova school itself.
The books that came out of the classrooms
During those years, the Piarist Fathers arrived at the academy, teaching religion and philosophy. And an encounter took place that changed everything: a friendship with Eduardo Vitoria , the Jesuit founder of IQS.
This led to contact with the Bosch publishing house and a series of mathematics books that were used in several universities in the region. It was a turning point: the academy ceased to be just a place where exams were prepared and began producing the material that others used to study.
The First World War, unexpectedly
The war didn't hit Catalonia as hard as the Civil War would, but it did have a curious effect on academia: German students arrived , fleeing the brutality of the conflict in their country. More than a century before the term "international student" existed, the academy already had a few.
The Civil War: La Floresta and an infirmary
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Guiu moved to La Floresta seeking a safer environment, and there he continued his work.
His son, Francisco Guiu , went to the Republican front and ended up in a concentration camp. He survived, the family says, because he never stopped doing the only thing he knew how to do: he gave classes in the camp infirmary, teaching his own oppressors how to write, add, and subtract.
It is the episode that best summarizes where this academy comes from.
The 1940s: Aragón Street
When the war ended, the dictatorship came, particularly harsh in Catalonia. The family continued teaching, and in the 1940s the academy moved to Aragón Street.
During that period, prestigious professors taught in its classrooms: Enric Guitón , from the School of Engineering of Barcelona, and Pere Viader , who participated in the design and construction of the Montjuïc fountains.
The change that saved him: from engineering to university entrance exams
And then came the moment when it all almost ended.
The change in the engineering curriculum—the transition from Plan 57 to Plan 64 —emptied the classrooms. The specialty that had sustained the academy for decades ceased to be in demand from one year to the next.
The response was to redesign the model: a gradual transition towards preparing for university entrance exams , opening new subjects, seeking teachers from other specialties and creating courses for international students who wanted to study in Barcelona.
That decision is the reason the academy still exists. And it explains why it continues to do the same thing today: the university entrance exam preparation courses and the courses for international students originated there.
Until today
With the opening of the Rambla Catalunya center , Manuel Guiu managed the academy together with his son Jordi Guiu , until he retired and left it in his hands.
"I see that the Academy is stable. Although the beginnings were not easy, thanks to word of mouth, recommendations from universities and our professionalism, we have led the Guiu Academy to success."
One hundred and thirty-four years after that first classroom on Pelayo Street, it is still a family business that does what the founder did: teach.
FAQ
When was the Guiu Academy founded?
In 1892, on Pelayo Street in Barcelona, by Manuel Guiu Casanova, a graduate in science and author of several mathematics books.
What did the academy do at the beginning?
To prepare engineers and architects. Specialization in the Selectividad exam came much later, after the change in engineering curricula in the sixties.
Is it still a family business?
Yes. The management has been passed down from generation to generation from the founder to the present day.
Where has the academy gone?
Pelayo Street in its beginnings, then Passeig de Gràcia, Aragón Street from the forties onwards and later Rambla Catalunya.
