The rectors’ plaque in the University of Vienna’s main building on the Ring

The names of all rectors since the university’s founding in 1365 were chiseled into marble in the right side alcove in the aula of the main building at the Viennese Ringstraße in 1892. These rectors’ plaques in the aula – formerly called rectors’ fasti based on the Roman fasti consulares (marble plaques for the highest magistrates on the Capitoline Hill) – with their long list of names of elected university presidents, convey a sense of continuity and stability over many centuries. Across all actual breaks it remains as a symbol of the university’s unbroken independence and represents its – real or idealized – autonomy in choosing its own leader.

(Chronological list of rectors of the University of Vienna)