Address: 1827 University Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Phone: (434) 924-0311
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You can’t come to Charlottesville without walking around the UVA campus. Begin your tour at the Lawn, a grassy area designed by Thomas Jefferson to be the center of the university. The Lawn is surrounded by academic and residential buildings dating back to the early 1800s. To this day, students in their final year can live in some of the original buildings on the Lawn — a prestigious honor.  At the north end, you’ll see the Rotunda, one of the most recognizable buildings on campus. During the academic year, tours of the Rotunda are offered every day at 11am. 

Visitors should also take the time to see the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers (MEL) at the University of Virginia, just a short walk east of the Rotunda. Completed in spring 2020, the memorial honors the estimated 4,000 enslaved individuals who built and maintained the university over four decades. 

If you continue north, you’ll come across Beta Bridge on Rugby Road. Thanks to its passionate alumni, UVA has countless traditions, one of which is painting the bridge with messages of support, activism, love, and remembrance. Messages constantly change — so much so that the bridge has developed a thick layer of paint over the years — but most students give each new message at least a day before painting over it.