Escuela Normal Superior Sarmiento, Teacher training school in San Juan, Argentina

The Escuela Normal Superior Sarmiento occupies a full block in San Juan, bounded by Avenida Libertador General San Martín, Avenida Alem, Laprida and Santiago del Estero. Its 1910 building, designed by engineer Domingo Selva, has a large entrance portal and originally a rectangular plan with two parallel courtyards lined by classroom galleries. The central assembly hall remains the core of school activity.

Created by a national executive decree on 27 May 1879 under President Nicolás Avellaneda, the school began classes on 19 October 1879. On 25 May 1884, thirteen teachers received their diplomas at the Teatro Vasconcellos, with Governor Carlos Doncel and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento present. A provincial law of 10 August 1887 ceded land near Avenida Alem, and the current building opened in 1913.

The school is named after Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who attended the 1884 graduation of its first thirteen teachers at the Teatro Vasconcellos. Each year the institution celebrates its anniversary on 19 October, the date its first classes began in 1879. The central assembly hall has always hosted school activities.

The school occupies a full block bounded by Avenida Libertador General San Martín to the north, Avenida Alem to the east, Laprida to the south and Santiago del Estero to the west, about 600 metres northwest of Plaza 25 de Mayo near Plaza Laprida. The main entrance portal faces Avenida Alem at number 31. It is a working school, so the courtyards and galleries are seen from outside during school hours.

Domingo Selva was an Argentine engineer, not Italian. The building was the first earthquake-resistant structure in San Juan and the only one left from the centenary era. It survived the 1944 quake, then housed the provincial government; the 1977 quake caused only slight cracks and few days without classes.