Sagrada Família Schools the commission of the Devout of San José which was presided over by Josep Maria Bocabella, founder of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia. Its principal promoter was Gil Parés, the first parish priest of the Sagrada Familia, who was the school's principal until 1930. At first he followed the pedagogic method of Andrés Manjón, founder of the school of Ave Maria de Granada, but from 1915 on he applied the Montessori method. The schools were inaugurated on November 15, 1909 by the bishop of Barcelona, Juan José Laguarda y Fenollera. It was originally located on ground destined to face
Catholic Church in Spain spreading Christianity. The Spanish Church oversees one of the greatest repositories of religious architecture (and art) in the world, among them the outstanding cathedrals of Cordoba (a former mosque), Santiago de Compostela, Burgos, León, Seville, Toledo and the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza. There are also magnificent monasteries like San Millán and Silos in La Rioja, Monstserrat and Poblet in Catalonia, El Escorial and El Paular in Madrid, San Juan de los Reyes in Castile-La Mancha, the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Castile and Leon, or churches like Sagrada Familia in