Catholic Custom: the "Pontifical" School

This is the main entrance of the old Pontifical College of St. Mary of Mercy (Collegium Ss. Mariae Misericordiae), located in Ascona, Switzerland. 

This is a school founded in the 1500s by Pope Gregory XIII, who in his wisdom bestowed upon it the privilege of the title "pontifical" (thus the papal tiara and keys on the school arms). 

Then came the 1960s and in 1965 the Holy See agreed to give the school to the local See of Lugano.  With a pontifical school a certain ardour of devotion is instilled for the papacy/popes/church.  And it can help guarantee orthodoxy.  It's a pity it ended in this case.

The erector and cardinal protector was St. Charles Cardinal Borromeo.  As a pontifical college it always had a "protector," usually the cardinal of the nearby See of St. Ambrose, Milan.

Let's hope some of these nice traditions and privileges lost and/or given up in the 1960s might be brought back.