The year 1928 saw the inauguration to the south of the Retiro Park of the first pavilion of the Retiro Section High School, which was linked to the Board for Educational Expansion. It was an experimental teaching centre for secondary education reform which, among other aspects, encouraged outdoor activities and contact with nature. An initial building was constructed on historicist and hygienist principles following the plans drawn up by the architect Francisco Javier Luque, and was based on a novel program that included four laboratories. In 1939, at the end of the Civil War, it became the Isabel La Católica Secondary School for Girls and, in 1945, was incorporated into the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) as an exemplary centre with an exceptional team of teachers. Since 1961 and until the present day, a variety of extensions have been undertaken where this institution’s archive, library and scientific material are kept.