Gustavianum

The building dates from the 1620s and Olof Rudbeck put the anatomical theatre on top of it in 1662 and 1663 - a wooden cone of steep tiered benches under a lantern, with a rotating table at the bottom, built so students could look down on a dissection. Bodies were of executed criminals and the events were public. The theatre is intact and can be climbed into. Below, the museum holds the university's collections: Egyptian and classical antiquities, Viking-age material from Valsgarde, scientific instruments, and the Augsburg Art Cabinet, an ornate seventeenth-century cabinet packed with hundreds of objects. The museum reopened in 2024 after a long rebuilding.

What you actually see

• The anatomical theatre of 1663 - steep wooden benches under a lantern.
• The Augsburg Art Cabinet - hundreds of objects in one piece of furniture.
• Valsgarde boat-grave material - Viking-age finds.
• Egyptian and classical collections - through the lower floors.

When to go

Year round; closed Mondays. An hour and a half.

Honest expectations

The theatre is reached by narrow stairs. It is a compact museum and can be done quickly. English labelling is good but not complete. Uppsala's other university sites need separate tickets.

Nearby

Uppsala cathedral is opposite; Carolina Rediviva is uphill.