"I love their calling this school after me," said Federico Mayor Zaragoza in a visit made in 2013 to the junior & primary school bearing his name in Salobreña.

Federico Mayor Zaragoza, who was the Director General of UNESCO and a one-time, summer resident of Salobreña, died last month at the age of 90. 

He built his holiday home on the western slope of the Old Town around 50 years ago and spent many of his vacational periods there.

Not that he had much spare time because besides being Director General of UNESCO, he was also a Spanish Government minister, holding the portfolio for Science & Education in the last years of Franco’s regime. He was also the Director of the University of Granada and Vice Chairman of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). 

Born in Barcelona in 1934, he started his long career as a Professor at the Pharmacy Faculty of the University of Madrid.

Until Colegio Público Mayor Zaragoza was opened in 1976, there were only about 17 classrooms in the municipality of Salobreña, spread over six small building; five public and one private (three in Salobreña with eight classrooms, two in Lobres with four classrooms and one in La Caleta with five classrooms, one of them public) with 17 teachers all told. Mayor Zaragoza School didn’t get its playground etc, until 1982.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: CEIP Mayor Zaragoza, UNESCO, Government Minister, Professor, Granada University

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