The crème de la crème of academia flock to this distinguished university, one of the world’s most famous. Today ‘La Sorbonne’ embraces most of the 13 autonomous universities – some 45,000 students in all – created when the University of Paris was reorganised after the student protests of 1968. Visitors are not permitted to enter.
The original Sorbonne was founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon, confessor to Louis IX, as a college for 16 impoverished theology students; soon after it grew into a powerful body with its own government and laws.
The Chapelle de la Sorbonne, the university’s distinctive domed church, was built between 1635 and 1642. The remains of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) lie in a tomb with an effigy of a cardinal’s hat suspended above.