Diego Echavarria Masses   Diego Echavarria Masses  Businessman and philanthropist Birth September 28 of 1895  Itagüi , Colombia Death September 19 of 1971 (76 years) Medellin ,Colombia

Don Diego Echavarria Masses , (* Itagüi , 1895 - † Medellín , September 19 of 1971 ) was a noted philanthropist who donated much of his money to the municipalities of the Aburrá Valley .

Life and Work

Masses Diego Echavarria was the son of Alejandro Echavarria Isaza , originally from Barbosa and Ana Josefa Euse Masses. At 16 he was sent to Germany , where he attended high school in the Pedagogium in Godesberg , near Bonn . 1Thereafter, he traveled through different parts of Europe , visiting regularly to Medellin, where he initially worked with his father. He settled in Paris .

Later he married the German Doña Benedikta zur Nieden , known as Doña Dita with whom he had his only daughter Isolda Echavarria Nieden Zur, decided to settle in Medellin and bought a farm in Itagüi, who called Dita Aires , later called Ditaires , there planted a grove. Currently, the original territory of the estate have been reduced to the construction of neighborhoods and streets, the house of the culture of Itagüi, the German School of Medellin and the park Recreativo Ditaires. However, the main hacienda has not been modified, and is now a convention center.

On Sunday observes the plight of the peasants, reason that prompted him to build a clinic in San Antonio de Prado , giving half the budget for construction. In 1945 built the Library Foundation Itagüi, favorite work of Diego. He ignored the criticism. 15 years later it was the result, approximately 10,000 readers came in 1960 to this reading room. The 1971 statistics showed a total of 354 236 readers. This site is currently an auditorium, as the library was moved to Labor Park .

Former headquarters Diego Echavarria Itagüi Library Masses , now is the Cultural Auditorium of the library. 2

In the early years worked a painting class which later was removed due to the narrowness, the large number of readers. In 1970 he donated a large batch of his estate in Itagüi for the construction of a school in the neighborhood of Santa Ana, who called Isolda Echavarria in memory of the only daughter of Don Diego, died in the United States where he attended his university studies due to illness Guillam called Barre. With the heritage of his family, Don Diego created a foundation for education and charitable works, built the residence Isolda Echavarria in the Pedregal neighborhood; center providing practical education and medical care to the people living nearby. Almost daily up to monitor the work of the construction and later operation.

He later moved to the Village with the purchase of El Castillo , site of artworks installed. Liked European environment to live in this house and reformed to achieve extraordinary artistic appearance.Now is museum . The last thing I did was create Barbosa Library. The day of kidnapping, commissioned by Pablo Escobar Gaviria , led many books to that building, made ​​catalog and was pleased by the results that would occur in the municipality. He was killed on September 19 of 1971 by the author of his abduction Pablo Escobar Gaviria .