Sat 06/09. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, with special opening and guided tour of the courtyards and temporary exhibition.

Who were the emperors Lothair I and Charles IV, and how did they contribute to the birth of Pavia’s cultural institutions?

On Saturday, September 6, 2025, during Pavia’s Notte Bianca (White Night festival), the Pavia University History Museum will attempt to answer this fascinating and complex question. The Museum will be open from 5:30 PM to 11:00 PM and will offer, from 6:00 PM, a guided tour of the courtyards of the University central building, along with a temporary exhibition at the Museum, “THE ORIGINS OF PAVIA UNIVERSITY. A walk among the Unversity’s courtyards and the temporary exhibition at the Museum, searching for history and founding myths.”

The guided tour will have a cost of €5 per person, in addition to the regular admission ticket (free, €3 reduced price or €5 full price). Meeting time is at 5:45 PM at the Museum entrance, in the Cortile dei Caduti (Courtyard of the Fallen) of the University’s Central building.

The tour will guide participants through the courtyards of the building, searching for signs and memories of the three founding myths of the University in the high reliefs, monuments, and representations of historical figures; the walk will end at the temporary exhibition of the Pavia University History Museum, dedicated to the university’s origins.

The University of Pavia was indeed founded in 1361, thanks to the efforts of Galeazzo II Visconti, already Lord of Milan and new conqueror of Pavia, who obtained for his new conquest the recognition, from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, of a Studium Generale. It was not long after this, though, that the Viscontis political ambitions led the family to try and date the foundation of the Studium back to much earlier times: it was the beginning of the Longobard foundation myth.

A second myth would follow in the 16th century, seeking to link the founding of the University of Pavia to Charlemagne: ambitious origins, even more ancient and noble.

It was not until the eighteenth century, with Ludovico Antonio Muratori, that the lack of ground of these fables began to be discussed. Nevertheless, in 1925, the University itself imagined its origins to be “incredibly ancient”, mistakenly tracing its foundation to the Capitulary promulgated by the Carolingian Emperor Lothair I in the year 825. On the occasion of the imagined “eleventh centenary,” the university organized extensive celebrations, attended by the king, Victor Emmanuel III of Savoy, and many guests from Italian and international universities. The Lothair myth survived in the popular imagination and was revived in 1961, when, for the actual sixth centenary of the founding, the figure of Lothair was again brought to the forefront. Somewhat hastily, two portraits of Lothair I and Galeazzo II were posted outside the main entrance of the Central Palace of the University of Pavia. However, the event caused a curious case of mistaken identity, discovered only in recent years… The visitor will learn an interesting story of beards, crowns and titles.