University of Vienna

The main building of the University of Vienna is located on the Universitätsring in Vienna’s first district, Inner City, and has been thus titled since 2012.Heinrich Ferstel designed the building, which was built between 1873 and 1884 and serves as the primary edifice of the University of Vienna, which was founded in 1365.

Ferstel chose the Italian High Renaissance style for the building as a tribute to Europe’s first heyday of science, with influence from the universities of Padua and Genoa.The building complex has a huge arcaded courtyard (50 40 meters) and eight smaller courtyards, and the main facade with its access ramp is defined by projecting corner projections and a raised middle portion.The Ringstrasse’s eye-catcher is the dramatic projecting columned hall.A sculpture on the pediment represents the birth of Minerva, the goddess of knowledge.

The main building has a total area of 21,412 m2, of which 14,530 m2 are built-up.The university library, which has a spacious reading room, sits at the back of the building, facing Reichsratsstrasse.Because the library has no windows, sgraffito was used to embellish the wall along Reichsratsstrasse.The Auditorium Maximum was erected in the 1930s and has 751 seats, making it Austria’s biggest lecture hall.

The main edifice of the University of Vienna was frequently the site of political squabbles.During the interwar period, the local National Socialists, who had well-organized and well-equipped party units, made their presence felt at the institution as well.Student riots occurred in front of the university in 1928 and 1932.Taras Borodajkewycz, a right-wing fanatic even in the 1960s, worked here in the 1930s.Moritz Schlick, a German philosopher, was assassinated on a stairwell in the main building in 1936 by one of his former pupils.The Siegfried Head, built in the theater by anti-Semites and anti-democrats in 1923 and only moved to a less visible site in 2006, was the focus of ideological debate.

Today the main building houses the following facilities:

• 2nd mezzanine : Institute for German Studies
• 2nd floor : seminar and exercise rooms, departmental library for German Studies, Institute for History, departmental library for historical sciences, Catholic Theological Faculty, Protestant Theological Faculty
• 1st mezzanine : international relations, public relations, personnel administration, institute for economic and social history
• 1st floor : university library , management, institute for Austrian historical research , institute for history, historical-cultural faculty, philological-cultural faculty, small ballroom, large ballroom, senate hall
• Raised ground floor : auditorium, arcaded courtyard, textbook collection, internal auditing, finance and controlling, personnel administration, Institute for Classical Philology, Institute for Ancient History and Classical Studies
• Lower ground floor : Audimax, Admissions Office, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Institute for Dutch Studies

The main building is conveniently accessible by public transportation, which includes the directly nearby metro station Schottentor and 10 tram routes that stop there.Private vehicles may park in a big underground car park beneath the square.

The Hotel de France, the old main building of the Creditanstalt-Bankverein, the Palais Ephrussi, the former OPEC building (Universitätsring 10) and the Pasqualati building on the Mölker Bastei with a Beethoven memorial are also nearby.