The campus of the University of Notre Dame is located in Notre Dame, Indiana, and spans 1,250 acres (510 ha) comprising around 190 buildings. It is particularly noted for the Golden Dome, the Basilica and its stained glass windows, the quads and the greenery, the Grotto, Touchdown Jesus, its collegiate Gothic architecture, and its statues and museums. Notre Dame is a major tourist attraction in northern Indiana; in the 2015–2016 academic year, more than 1.8 million visitors, almost half of whom were from outside of St. Joseph County, visited the campus.
When the university was founded in 1842, the only building on site was the Log Chapel, which had been built in 1831. Under the guidance of the founder and first president Edward Sorin, Old College and the first church and main building were built. The second main building, which constituted almost the entirety of the university facilities, burnt down in 1879, and was followed by the current Main Building. The campus has continued to grow ever since. The architectural style of the first building was an eclectic mix of 19th French and Victorian architecture, with collegiate gothic taking over at the beginning of the 20th century with architects such as Kervick and Fagan and Maginnis & Walsh. The latter half of the 20th century saw the use of modernist designs, but since the mid-1990s, the university recommitted to the gothic architecture keeping the specific materials and forms of the older parts of campus. Many of the older structures were placed in 1973 on the National Register of Historic Places.
