Palais Universitaire | Université de Strasbourg
Neo-Renaissance stone palace crowned with thirty-six carved statues of scientists and thinkers.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Palais Universitaire in Strasbourg opens with chemist Jean-Pierre Sauvage, trained a few streets away, and a question that sounds almost absurd: could two ring-shaped molecules be joined with no chemical bond at all. It traces the thirty-six carved scientists and thinkers staring down from this facade, finished in 1884 as a showcase for the newly German university, and follows earlier figures who taught here, Wilhelm Rontgen before he discovered X-rays and Adolf von Baeyer working out how to synthesize indigo dye. The facade names who the empire wanted celebrated; the guide asks who the university actually kept producing.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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