On the site of a former Dominican monastery that was purchased
by Grand Duke Karl Friedrich of Baden in 1804, a scientific
institute was built in 1861-64 based on plans drawn up by
District Building Inspector Wilhelm Waag. This stately building
was named Fridericianum or Friedrichsbau after Grand Duke
Friedrich I of Baden, who was then in power. The three-wing
complex stresses the great importance that was already being
attached to the sciences. The building housed the departments
of physics, mineralogy, mathematics, technology, and physiology.
Professors Helmholtz and Kirchhoff received apartments in
the three-story middle section to live in with their families.
Today the university’s Psychological Institute is accommodated
here.
On the square in front of the Friedrichsbau – known as
the “Anatomy Garden” – is a larger-than-life
statue of Robert Bunsen with allegorical depictions of the
still-unawakened and harnessed forces of nature.
Friedrichsbau,
Hauptstrasse 47 - 51