Uppsala University’s oldest surviving building began as lecture halls, student rooms and a library. Today its museum collections share space with Olof Rudbeck’s reconstructed 17th-century anatomical theatre beneath the famous rooftop cupola.
Quick facts
Gustavianum was completed in 1625 after construction began in 1622, with funds and land provided by King Gustav II Adolf.
Olof Rudbeck the Elder oversaw construction of the anatomical theatre in 1662–63; its restored interior was reconstructed in the 1950s from his drawings.
The Augsburg Art Cabinet was donated to Uppsala University by King Karl XI in 1694 and preserves about a thousand objects in its original collection.
Get directions to Gustavianum. Confirm the visitor entrance and current access with the venue before travelling.
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The globe above Gustavianum’s roof once served as a sundial. Beneath it, a steeply tiered room was built for anatomy demonstrations; elsewhere in the same building, students ate, slept, listened to lectures and later studied among the university library’s books. Gustavianum is not simply a museum placed inside an old university building. Its rooms record how Uppsala University taught, collected and presented knowledge over four centuries.
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