Former building of the Old Library - currently Collegium Novum.
The main campus of the University of Warsaw is in downtown Warsaw, in Krakowskie Przedmiescie. The campus comprises several historic palaces. The chief buildings include: Kazimierzowski Palace, Old Library, the Main School and Auditorium Maximum.

The University of Warsaw (UW) was established in 1816, when the partitions of Poland separated Warsaw from the oldest and most influential Polish academic center, in Kraków. The first to be established in Congress Poland were the Law School and the Medical School. In 1816 Tsar Alexander I permitted the Polish authorities to create a university, comprising five departments: Law and Administration, Medicine, Philosophy, Theology, and Art and Humanities.

Today University of Warsaw is Poland's largest university - UW employs over 5,800 people, including over 3,000 academic teacher and educates over 55,500 undergraduate and graduate students.