Italy Guide
Emilia-Romagna
The Old University
Address: Piazza Maggiore
Bologna's old university – the Archiginnasio – was founded at more or less the same time as Piazza Maggiore was laid out, predating the rest of Europe's universities, although it didn't get a special building until 1565, when Antonio Morandi was commissioned to construct the present building on the site until then reserved for San Petronio. Centralizing the university on one site was a way of maintaining control over students at a time when the Church felt particularly threatened by the Reformation. You can wander freely into the main courtyard, covered with the coats of arms of its more famous graduates, and in the mornings it's also possible to visit the main upstairs library, and, most interestingly, the Teatro Anatomico (Mon– Fri 9am–1pm; 
051.236.488; free), the original medical faculty dissection theatre.