Carolina Rediviva: Uppsala's University Library and the Silver Bible
Carolina Rediviva is worth an hour of any Uppsala city break: the university library's exhibition hall holds the Silver Bible and the Carta Marina, and admission is free. This guide covers what is inside, where the building sits on Carolinabacken, how long to allow and what to see nearby.
Do not arrive expecting one set of opening hours. The university library publishes separate times for the exhibition and shop, Café Carolina, the information desk and the Special Collections Reading Room, so a building that looks shut can still have an open exhibition.
What Carolina Rediviva is and why it is worth a stop
Carolina Rediviva is the main library of Uppsala University and the oldest and largest university library building in Sweden. Uppsala University Library was founded in 1620 by Gustav II Adolf, who donated its first collections, and the Carolina Rediviva building was inaugurated in 1841 on Carolinabacken.
As a visitor, your reason to climb the hill is the exhibition hall rather than the reading rooms. It concentrates 400 years of collecting into a single room, with the Silver Bible as the headline piece and the 1539 Carta Marina close by.
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Where it is: Dag Hammarskjölds väg 1 on Carolinabacken
The library stands at Dag Hammarskjölds väg 1, on Carolinabacken below Uppsala Castle. It is a short walk from the centre of Uppsala, so it slots naturally into a morning that also takes in the castle hill.
If you are building a longer list of sights, the library sits comfortably among the free and low-cost stops covered in Uppsala Attractions: 13 Visitor Guides, and it pairs well with Gustavianum, Uppsala University's other museum piece, a few minutes away.
What to see in the exhibition hall: the Silver Bible
The Silver Bible, or Codex Argenteus, is the single most important source of knowledge about the extinct Gothic language. Despite the name, it is not a whole Bible: it is an evangeliarium containing only the four Gospels, written in Italy in the early 6th century in gold and silver ink on thin purple-dyed parchment.
Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie donated the manuscript to Uppsala University in 1669, and it has been in Uppsala ever since. Look for the silver lettering against the purple ground; it is the detail most visitors remember, and the reason the book is displayed under low light.
The Carta Marina of 1539 and the temporary exhibitions
The exhibition also holds the Carta Marina, printed in 1539 and described by the library as the earliest fairly accurate map of Scandinavia. Together with the Silver Bible it gives the room its shape: writing and printing, then the mapping of the north.
Around these fixed pieces the library mounts temporary exhibitions on current themes, so the second half of the hall changes between visits. If you are coming for a specific display, check the exhibition page before travelling rather than assuming the permanent pieces are all there is.
Tickets: the exhibition hall is free
Admission to the exhibition hall is free, so there is no ticket to buy for the display itself. That makes Carolina Rediviva one of the easiest additions to a Uppsala itinerary when the weather turns.
Everything else in the building is a library rather than an attraction, and there is no charge for walking in. Do not budget for a ticket here; the money is better spent on a fika at Café Carolina.
Opening hours: which parts keep separate hours
The building does not open and close as one unit. The information desk, Café Carolina, the exhibition and shop, and the Special Collections Reading Room each keep their own published times, and the library publishes them week by week on its opening hours page.
The practical move is to check the exhibition and shop hours on the library site the day before you go, then treat the café and desk as separate questions. Hours shift through the year, so a time that worked in summer is not a promise for October.
How much time to allow
One hour covers the exhibition hall at an unhurried pace, including a proper look at the Silver Bible and the Carta Marina. Add twenty minutes if you want a coffee upstairs, and more if you plan to use a reading room.
Carolina Rediviva fits neatly into a one- or two-day Uppsala visit alongside the castle and the cathedral quarter. It is not a half-day museum, so treat it as a focused stop rather than the anchor of your day.
Café Carolina and the upper-level café area
Café Carolina on the entrance floor serves lunch and fika, which makes it the obvious place to sit down after the exhibition. Upstairs there is a further café area with vending and coffee machines and microwaves, where you may heat and eat food you bring in.
The rule to remember is that food stays in the café areas: no food in the rest of the library, and drinks only in containers with a lid. If you want a wider choice of places to eat, the streets down towards the river are a short walk away.
Accessibility: lifts, toilets and step-only galleries
A lift runs from the entrance on floor 4 to floors 5, 6 and 9, and accessible toilets are on floors 4, 6 and 9; the Special Collections Reading Room doors are usually left wide open. There is also an accessible parking space on the south-eastern side of the building, towards Uppsala Castle.
Some corners are only reached by steps: the galleries in reading rooms A and B, a 4½ level in reading room C with no lift, and part of reading room A. Ask at the information desk and staff will fetch material for you rather than leaving you stuck at the bottom.
Nearby: Uppsala Castle and central Uppsala
Uppsala Castle is the immediate neighbour, up the slope from Carolinabacken, and the cathedral and river streets are within walking distance. If you have time for one more garden or green space, the Linnaeus Garden, Uppsala and the Uppsala Botanical Garden are both central and easy to add.
A walk down towards Fyrisån in Uppsala gives you the city's other natural axis and a pleasant route back into the centre. Keep the library as the first stop of the morning and let the rest of the day flow downhill from it.
Walpurgis Eve on Carolinabacken
Every year on Walpurgis Eve, thousands of students gather on the slope below Carolina Rediviva. When the Vice-Chancellor waves a white student cap from the building, spring is declared open, one of Uppsala's most cherished student traditions.
If you are in Uppsala at the end of April, the ceremony is worth planning around, but expect crowds on Carolinabacken and a different atmosphere inside the library. Outside that evening, the building is a working library and the exhibition is the reason to go in.
Is Carolina Rediviva worth the walk up the hill?
Yes, if you have an hour and an interest in old books or maps: the Silver Bible and the Carta Marina are genuinely remarkable, and the free admission removes the risk. Skip it only if your Uppsala time is very tight and you would rather spend it at Gustavianum or along the river.
Check the exhibition and shop hours on the library site before you set off, since they are published separately from the café and reading rooms, then walk up from the centre and let the castle hill fill the rest of your morning.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to book to see the Silver Bible?
Admission to the exhibition hall is free, and the Silver Bible and the Carta Marina are part of the permanent display there during its published opening hours. Temporary exhibitions change, so check the library's exhibition page if you are coming for a specific show.
How long does a visit to Carolina Rediviva take?
About an hour is enough for the exhibition hall at a relaxed pace. Add time if you want a fika at Café Carolina or to sit in one of the reading rooms; the building is a working library, so quiet study areas are not part of the sightseeing route.
Is Carolina Rediviva the same as Uppsala University Library?
Carolina Rediviva is the main building of Uppsala University Library, the library founded in 1620. The university also runs several subject-specific libraries elsewhere in the city, so if you are looking for a particular collection, check which building holds it before you travel.