University of Bologna

The two-story arcaded courtyard of the Archiginnasio in Bologna, Italy. It was built in 1562 and 1563 on the orders of the papal legate to give the university's teaching a single home, after years spread across scattered sites. Its walls and vaults are covered in painted coats of arms, the largest surviving display of mural heraldry. Bologna calls itself the oldest university in the Western world. Its founding year of 1088 is a convention rather than a recorded founding act: the university itself describes it as the year conventionally taken as the start of its studium.