Piarist College and Gymnasium, Educational institution in New Town, Prague, Czech Republic

The Piarist College and Gymnasium consists of two buildings on the north side of Na příkopě. The Rococo college, built 1760–1765 behind the Holy Cross Church, has a library, refectory and chapel with wall paintings by Josef Hager and an altarpiece by Felix Ivo Leicher. The gymnasium building, adjoining the church, was built 1810–1820 to plans by Josef Zobel.

The Piarists came to Prague in 1752 and founded a Czech province; after 1758 they acquired the buildings on Na příkopě. In 1777 Gelasius Dobner obtained the former Jesuit gymnasium, which opened in 1778 as the third gymnasium in Prague. The college building was erected in 1760–1765, the gymnasium in 1810–1820; in 1875 the gymnasium passed to state administration.

The school was officially German-speaking, but from the 1860s the lower classes had separate Czech-language sections. About a quarter to a third of pupils were Czech, and most of the German-speaking pupils came from Jewish families. Until 1875 nearly all teachers were Piarists, except a Jewish religion teacher and an assistant.

The former college and gymnasium buildings stand on the north side of Na příkopě and in Panská Street, in Prague's New Town. They now house the František Křížík secondary technical school and higher vocational school, with shops at street level, so interiors are not open as a museum. Visitors can view the Rococo college facade and the early 19th-century gymnasium building from the street.

The refectory, library and chapel keep wall paintings by Josef Hager, and the chapel altarpiece was painted by Felix Ivo Leicher. In 1923 the Piarists sold the college to the Czech Joint-Stock Printing House, which added a floor to the chapel and opened its lower level to the street as a shop.