The Campus

SISSA’s campus is located at Via Bonomea 265, Trieste, within a 100,000 m² park that provides a peaceful and stimulating environment for research and learning. The main buildings on campus include:

• Santorio Building (Building A):
 This is the central hub of the campus, hosting most of SISSA’s academic and scientific activities. It includes:
  • Classrooms and lecture halls for courses and seminars
  • Research laboratories in neuroscience, neurobiology, and cognitive studies
  • The SISSA Library, offering extensive scientific resources and study areas
  • Administrative offices, including the Student Secretariat and Helpdesk
  • A cafeteria and bar on the ground floor, operated by ERDISU
  • Additional services such as an internal mailroom and an ATM near the main entrance
• Building B1:
 Home to La SISSA dei Piccoli, the campus kindergarten for children aged 13 to 36 months, in a safe and welcoming setting surrounded by greenery.
• Building B5:
 Hosts the campus gym, equipped for various physical activities, and the music room, located above the gym, available for practice and recreation.

SISSA’s campus offers a variety of classrooms, seminar rooms, and communal areas designed to support learning, collaboration, and exchange. Most teaching spaces are located within the main building and are equipped with up-to-date technology for in-person and hybrid activities. The School provides lecture halls for PhD courses, workshops, and scientific events, seminar rooms for smaller classes, internal meetings, and group discussions as well as flexible common areas, used for informal meetings, quick collaborations, and cross-area interactions These spaces are designed to encourage the kind of interdisciplinary dialogue that defines the SISSA experience.

The SISSA canteen and bar is located on the ground floor of the main SISSA Building. It provides catering services for students, researchers, faculty and staff. The service includes a self-service canteen for lunch and a bar offering coffee, snacks and light meals. Water dispensers are also available. 

It is possible to view the canteen menu online by signing up to the MySodexo web app. When registering, you must use an email with the domain @sissa.it and the restaurant code 377.

The registration page is in Italian. Once registered it will be possible to set the menu in English.

At the following link you can check the queue at the self-service (access only from SISSA network):
Canteen webcam

The Sixth Floor Lounge is a shared space within SISSA intended for study, informal meetings, and community activities. Located in one of the School’s common areas, it is used by students, researchers, staff, and visitors as a place to work, meet, take breaks, and gather during events and institutional initiatives.

The SISSA campus stands in the park surrounding the former Santorio Hospital in Trieste. It is a quiet place, amid the unspoilt vegetation very close to the Italian Karst, where you can go for lovely walks and enjoy the wonderful view over Trieste and its Gulf. It is a public park, including an Italian garden, with fountains, benches and tables where you can study or relax, and a wood with paths to enjoy walks in the wilderness. Since May 11, 2012 the garden has been offering a range of interactive exhibits on physics of sound.

The “Paolo Budinich” Main Auditorium and the Outdoor Amphitheatre are located at SISSA’s campus at Via Bonomea 265, Trieste. The two venues are built on top of one another: the Amphitheatre is located on the roof of the Main Auditorium, within the campus park.

The Main Auditorium has a seating capacity of 512 and is used for scientific conferences, congresses, seminars, institutional ceremonies, and public cultural events. It is named after physicist Paolo Budinich, who played a major role in the development of Trieste’s scientific institutions.

The Open-Air Amphitheatre accommodates approximately 250 spectators. Located in the SISSA campus park, directly above the Main Auditorium, it hosts public lectures, conferences, concerts, theatre performances, and cultural festivals, particularly during the summer season.

Both venues are available for events organised by SISSA or external organisations, subject to prior request and authorisation. Use of the Main Auditorium requires approval from SISSA’s management. 

The former SISSA campus is located at Via Beirut 2–4, in the Miramare area of Trieste, next to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). The site served as SISSA’s main headquarters until 2010, when the School moved to its current campus in Via Bonomea. The building includes the former Main Auditorium (Aula Magna), with a capacity of 600 people, designed to accommodate scientific conferences, seminars, institutional ceremonies, and academic events. The complex also includes several smaller lecture rooms and meeting spaces.