Cultural and public centres

The University's music activities, libraries, museums, discovery centres and botanical gardens are important and public activities within the University – on this page, some of the centres are presented.

Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden cultivates around 7 000 species on eight hectares of land in central Lund. The Garden operates a wide variety of activities in the areas of botany, horticulture, plant preservation and environmental awareness, partly for the University’s teaching and research, but also for preschools, schools, the public and public authorities. The Garden attracts more than 500 000 visitors annually.

Historical Museum

The Historical Museum at Lund University was founded in 1805 and is Sweden’s second largest archaeological museum. The museum’s collections include Kilian Stobaeus’s curio cabinet from the 18th century, many finds from the excavations of the Iron Age town of Uppåkra and numerous Stone, Bronze and Iron Age finds from Skåne.

The international room at Skissernas museum

Skissernas Museum – Museum of Artistic Process and Public Art

At Skissernas Museum – Museum of Artistic Process and Public Art you find exhibitions of sketches, preparatory studies and models for public art. The aim is to expose the creative process, the “artwork’s birth”, as museum founder Ragnar Josephson put it. Today, the museum increasingly focuses on highlighting the different aspects of public art and its development.

The Palaestra building covered in and surrounded by spring flowers

Odeum

Odeum’s roots date back to 1745 when Lund University Academic Orchestra (Akademiska Kapellet) was founded. Today, it is Lund University’s centre for student-based music-making, concerts, lectures and education. Within Odeum there are three student-based ensembles: the Lund University Academic Orchestra, the Lund Academic Choir and the Palaestra Vocal Ensemble. The Head of Odeum is the University’s Director of Music.

Vattenhallen Science Centre

On weekdays, school classes and other groups come to try out various experiments with a focus on science and engineering. In the experiment hall, you can get inside a giant soap bubble, test different sounds, or shoot protons and tickle electrons.

At weekends and during school holidays, Vattenhallen is open to the public. There are shows and visitors also have the opportunity to do experiments and try various construction kits.

Vattenhallen also helps organise different events, lectures and children’s parties.

Planetarium

The Faculty of Science planetarium first opened in 1978 in Stadsparken in Lund. The planetarium was reopened in the spring of 2010 at Vattenhallen Science Center. In the summer of 2012, new digital equipment was installed that gives the visitor a sense of flying out into the Universe and visiting planets and galaxies.

Find out more about the planetarium on the Vattenhallen website