Locations
Under the porticoes of Via San Vitale, No. 114 is the location chosen since 1953 for the first unit of the Library wanted by Dossetti in Bologna. Since 2018 FSCIRE is also in Palermo, where the Giorgio La Pira Library and Research Centre puts its heritage of books and documents at the service of scholars of the history of Islam.
In 1953, Angelo Salizzoni suggested to Dossetti establishing the seat of the Centro di documentazione in the building complex in Via San Vitale No. 114 (Bologna). The premises, which once hosted the ancient hospital of San Gregorio degli Incurabili, and later the hospital of the Poveri Orfanelli Mendicanti, are located within the historic walls of the city and since the 1950s have hosted FSCIRE and its activities, becoming its main headquarters.
For many years, an opera pia owned the building in Via San Vitale and used it as an asylum and for private rentals; it coexisted with the library and the research group of the Centro.
On the first anniversary of Dossetti’s death, the University of Bologna, the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Mayor of the city and FSCIRE signed an agreement that permitted the University to acquire the entire complex. It then leased it free of charge and for fifty years to FSCIRE: a regional law first, then the Presidency of the Council and the University, financed a major refurbishment of the whole building, which was completed in 2003.
Thanks to a donation of the city council in 2007, it has been possible to build a guest house, named after Beniamino Andreatta, located next to the main building, which hosts PhD students or visiting scholars from all around the world.
In Palermo, the La Pira Library, established in 2018, occupied during its early years the Santa Silvia complex made available by the diocese in Poggio Ridente. Since December 2023, it has moved to the city center, to a historic building (via degli Schioppettieri 25) that has undergone major restoration work for the occasion. The building houses all the impressive library holdings, print and digital, acquired so far.
In addition to the library, the venue is home to the “Giuseppe Alberigo” European High School; the UNESCO Chair for Religious Freedom and Peace; the infrastructure Resilience-ri.org; the ditorial team of Palermo Occasional Papers; the start-up Mim.fscire; the Institute for Religious Studies; and the Small Religious Video-History Workshop.
The first plaque at 114 Via San Vitale indicating the Centro di documentazione in 1953.
The plaque marking the renaming of the Centro in 1963.
Romano Prodi, Beniamino Andreatta and the Rector of the University of Bologna Fabio Roversi Monaco at a conference held in the Dossetti Library in 1997.
