Campus of the University of Vienna

Construction in the area began between 1693 and 1697 under Emperor Leopold I, when a Großarmenhaus (poorhouse) for invalids of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, as well as the homeless, was built.^[1] Expanded several times during the 18th century, the complex grew to accommodate up to 6,000 people. In 1783, Emperor Joseph II ordered its conversion into a hospital, following the model of the Paris Hôtel-Dieu. The Allgemeines Krankenhaus (General Hospital, AKH) opened in 1784 and became a central institution of the Vienna Medical School, associated with physicians such as Ignaz Semmelweis, Theodor Billroth, and Karl Landsteiner.

By the late 19th century, the site was increasingly regarded as too small and unsuitable for the growing demands of the hospital. The decision to construct a new hospital was taken in the 1950s, and building began in 1964. At that time, approximately two-thirds of the Old General Hospital complex was owned by the City of Vienna and one-third by the Republic of Austria. In 1965, on the University of Vienna's 600th anniversary, Mayor Franz Jonas announced that the city was considering transferring its share of the site to the university once the new hospital was completed. Plans for a university campus near Schottentor had already been envisaged in the university's founding charter of 1365, but had never been realised.

The legal basis for the transfer was established with the University Organisation Act of 1975. Completion of the new hospital was repeatedly delayed, including as a result of the AKH scandal in 1980. Various proposals for the reuse of the old hospital site were developed in the 1980s, including residential use, which was ultimately rejected due to heritage protection costs. In 1987, the City of Vienna held a design competition, won by a citizens' initiative advocating the preservation of the historic buildings and the greening of the courtyards; its core concepts were largely implemented.^[2]

Following a feasibility study, the deed transferring the city's share of the Old General Hospital to the university was signed on 7 December 1988 by Mayor Helmut Zilk and Rector Wilhelm Holczabek. The city required that parts of the site remain accessible to the public. Financing for the conversion was secured through the sale of one courtyard to the Austrian National Bank, federal funding, and third-party funds raised by the university. After the completion of the New General Hospital in 1994, conversion works for the campus took place between 1995 and 1998.^[2]

The campus was officially opened on 16 October 1998 by Rector Wolfgang Greisenegger and Mayor Michael Häupl, following a ten-year planning and construction period. The university primarily relocated humanities institutes to the site, many of which had previously been housed in the New Institute Building (NIG). From the outset, the landscaped courtyards as well as the campus's restaurants and shops were open to the general public.^[2]

Between 2002 and 2003, a new lecture hall centre was constructed on the campus. The former hospital synagogue, originally intended to be reactivated as a Jewish place of worship, was instead converted into the memorial space Marpe Lanefesch ("Healing for the Soul"), which opened in 2005.^[3] Since 2009, it has also housed the university's handwritten memorial book for the victims of Nazism in 1938 following the Anschluss.^[2] In 2012, the Pathological-Anatomical Museum in the Narrenturm was administratively integrated into the Natural History Museum Vienna.^[4]