Palais Universitaire, Strasbourg

The Palais Universitaire in Strasbourg is a large, neo-Renaissance style building, constructed between 1879 and 1884 under the direction of the German architect Otto Warth.

Through Avenue de la Liberté (former Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße), it faces the equally monumental former imperial palace (Kaiserpalast).

The old university transferred from the buildings that it had occupied for centuries at the Jean Sturm Gymnasium to the new ones located in the Neustadt.

The architect, Otto Warth (1845–1918), from Karlsruhe, was young when he was entrusted with the design of the building.

[1] One of the most distinctive features of the building is the Aula, which measures 25 m by 29 m and 16 m high, which Warth modeled on the Villa Garzoni in Pontecasale, Candiana.

[1] It is decorated with a monumental seated statue of Ramses II, 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) high, brought in 1933 by Pierre Montet.

Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493 – 1541), physician, alchemist, lay theologian and philosopher 25. v. Pufendorf, Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf (1632 – 1694), jurist, political philosopher, economist and historian 26.

Two allegorical statues representing Germania (Germany) and Argentina (Strasbourg), the former removed in 1918 and the latter destroyed in 1945, were replaced in their respective niche on the façade in 2014, after having been restored and/or replicated based on photos.

[6] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held its first session in this building, from 8 August to 10 September 1949.

The Palace's basement houses the Gypsothèque de Strasbourg, also known as Musée des moulages (plaster cast museum).