Founded in 1614, the University of Groningen is the second-oldest in the Netherlands after Leiden. With more than 30,000 students it sets the rhythm of the city — bikes, terraces, late nights — and explains why a town this size has such a busy cultural calendar.
The Academiegebouw on the Broerstraat is its symbolic centre: a neo-Renaissance pile from 1909 rebuilt after the previous building burned down in 1906. The main staircase and ceremonial Aula are sometimes open to the public during open days and the September university festival. Six Nobel Prize laureates studied or taught here, including Frits Zernike (Physics, 1953) and Ben Feringa (Chemistry, 2016).