Bologna is home to the oldest university in Europe and allegedly in the whole western world, with some daring to extend the title to the entire globe. Certainly, about a millennium later, it remains one of the world's most famous and traditional universities, still strongly connected to city life.
Entire areas and neighbourhoods show a pronounced student vocation, including the headquarters of the various schools, dormitories, libraries and clubs that shelter the nightlife of the tens of thousands of students who attend the capital of Emilia every year and the Alma Mater's lectures and examinations.
But what remains of this centuries-old university’s history and where are the landmarks that tell its story?
Here are 5 unmissable places to visit in Bologna to fully experience the spirit of the university past and present.
One of the most enduring icons of Unibo's presence, this building was erected in the 1500s to provide a unified headquarters for university teaching, which until then had been dispersed in various locations. The splendid porticoed courtyard with the coats of arms and names of the students who have passed through here leaves the visitor breathless and conveys the significance of history and the sacredness of culture. As we climb the two grand staircases we reach the building's real treasure: the 17th-century fir-wood anatomical theatre where the anatomy lessons of the Faculty of Medicine would take place, with the white table on which dissections were performed in the centre.
Also on the second floor is the Stabat Mater Hall, named after the first national performance of Gioachino Rossini's namesake opera in 1842. One of the most representative rooms of the old university building, lavishly decorated and embellished, it is now a venue for conferences and events.
This floor also houses the historic library, only accessible to registered students.
Located in the beating heart of the university citadel, inside Palazzo Poggi, Bologna's University Library is a place for reading, research and study. As you walk through its halls filled with books and manuscripts, works of art and furniture, you will take a journey back through centuries of knowledge history.
Established in the 18th century, after several extensions and restorations, it now contains more than 1,250,000 volumes, a picture gallery with no less than 400 portraits of illustrious people and 16th-century frescoes.
The library can be visited during special guided tours.
To better appreciate the history of the University of Bologna, a visit must be paid to the tombs of the glossators of the Bolognese School. These "suspended" tombs, so visibly displayed, are the city's tribute to the importance of academic culture: gathered outside the churches of San Domenico and San Francesco, they preserve the mortal remains of some of the earliest and most prominent professors and scholars of the medieval Studium, i.e. the University, developed around Law and the glossators, who commented on Roman law texts with explanatory additions in the margins, known as glossae.
Notable examples of these tombs include that of Accursio (and his son Francesco), a well-known jurist who lived in Piazza Maggiore where the headquarters of Bologna's municipality, Palazzo d'Accursio, is now located.
The Herbarium of the University of Bologna dates back to 1568 following a proposal by the well-known naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi and is one of the oldest in Europe with an extensive collection of dried 16th century plants preserved inside.
After several relocations, the Museum was finally moved to its current location at Via Irnerio 42.
Its current configuration is the result of two exhibition criteria: on the one hand, the presentation of individual collections of particular value, and on the other, the reconstruction of environments similar to those found in nature. The Garden also features four greenhouses, two tropical and two of succulent plants, as well as a collection of carnivorous plants.
Your journey through the most emblematic sites of the Alma Mater Studiorum continues at the "Luigi Cattaneo" Anatomical Wax Collection, with human bodies, bones and tendons reconstructed with absolute accuracy. Those who are not shocked by the realism of the exhibits will have a unique opportunity to explore this collection and understand its importance in the study of human anatomy.
