Oxford University
The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, a collegiate institution whose origins date to at least the twelfth century and whose buildings, traditions and academic culture have shaped intellectual life in Britain and across the world for over eight centuries. The university comprises thirty-eight autonomous colleges spread across the historic city centre, their medieval and later buildings lining the narrow streets and opening onto quadrangles of exceptional architectural quality that make Oxford one of the most architecturally rich cities in England.
The architecture of Oxford spans nearly nine centuries of continuous collegiate building, from the Norman tower of St Michael at the North Gate, the oldest building in the city, through the medieval halls and chapels of Merton, New College and Magdalen, the Renaissance classicism of Wren's Sheldonian Theatre, the baroque drama of Hawksmoor's buildings and the Victorian Gothic of Keble College to the modernist contributions of the twentieth century. No other English city outside London offers a comparable range of architectural history in such a compact and walkable area.
The public spaces and buildings of the university open to visitors include the Bodleian Library, one of the oldest and most important research libraries in the world whose Divinity School is the finest medieval interior in Oxford, the Radcliffe Camera, the Ashmolean Museum which houses outstanding collections of art and archaeology, and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History with its famous display of the dodo and its cast of an Archaeopteryx. The college chapels of Christ Church, Magdalen and New College each contain outstanding works of art and historical interest.
The Oxford University Parks and the Cherwell riverside provide excellent walking, and the tradition of punting on the Cherwell and the Isis remains one of the most pleasurable ways to experience the university city from the water.