Archiginnasio Guided Tour, Bologna

The Archiginnasio, seat of the old university

The University of Bologna was founded in 1088 and is considered the oldest in the Western world still in operation. For centuries its schools of law, medicine and philosophy met in rented rooms around the city, until in 1562–63 the city's papal government built the Archiginnasio to bring them under one roof, along the side of the great basilica on Piazza Maggiore. The university taught here until the early nineteenth century.

Walk into the courtyard and the first thing you notice is colour: the walls, vaults and staircases are covered with the painted and carved coats of arms of students and teachers who came from all over Europe, with inscriptions recording their names and home nations. Your guide explains how the students organised themselves by nation, how lessons worked and why Bologna drew young people from so far away.

The Anatomical Theatre

The highlight of the Archiginnasio guided tour is the Anatomical Theatre, built in 1637 as a hall for public anatomy lessons. It is lined entirely in spruce wood, with tiers of seats rising around a white marble table where dissections were carried out. The ceiling is carved with figures of the constellations, and wooden statues of famous physicians of the past stand in the niches around the walls.

Above the lecturer's chair, a canopy is supported by two carved figures without skin, known in Bologna as the 'Spellati', a striking anatomical study in wood. During the Second World War, in 1944, the theatre was almost destroyed by bombing; after the war it was carefully rebuilt using the original pieces recovered from the rubble, so what you see today is both a reconstruction and a remarkably faithful survivor.

The great halls and the library

Upstairs the palace held the two great lecture halls, one for the law students and one for the students of the arts and medicine. The former law hall is now called the Stabat Mater Hall, after a famous sacred concert first performed there in the nineteenth century; with its walls entirely painted with heraldry, it is still used for conferences and readings and may be shown when not in use.

Since 1838 the building has housed the Archiginnasio Municipal Library, one of the richest in Italy, with manuscripts, early printed books and drawings; its reading rooms are mostly reserved for study. The guided tour is the easiest way to see the most impressive spaces with someone who can explain them, in a single hour. Archiginnasio opening hours vary with the day and with events, which is why the tour runs at fixed times.

Around the Archiginnasio

The palace stands along the Portico del Pavaglione, one of the most elegant of Bologna's UNESCO-listed porticoes, once home to the silk-worm market and today lined with historic shops. At one end is Piazza Maggiore with the Basilica of San Petronio and the Neptune Fountain; behind, the Quadrilatero market lanes are a minute away, so the visit fits easily into a morning or afternoon in the old town.

Is the Archiginnasio worth visiting? For anyone interested in history, science or architecture it is one of the essential sights of Bologna, and the Anatomical Theatre is unlike anything else in Italy. Combine it with the Two Towers and the porticoes, or with our private Bologna tour with a local guide, for a complete picture of the city that the Italians call 'the Learned One'.