The University buildings were erected during the period when the Ringstrasse was being developed. The plans were by Heinrich Ferstel, who took inspiration from the Italian Renaissance style, the era which ushered in the “Golden Aged” of European science. The buildings were opened in 1884 and renovated in 1953 and 1965. in the arcaded central courtyard will be found monuments to famous university lecturers including Anton Bruckner, Gerhard von Swieten, Theodor von Billroth, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Ludwig Boltzmann, Anton von Eselsberg, Philipp Semmelweiss, Sigmund Freud and the Nobel prize-winners Karl Landsteiner and Julius Wagner-Jauregg.