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News
Sights of Interest in Greece
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National Library of Athens
08-03-2013 17:57The National Library is part of the famous trilogy of neo – classical buildings including the Academy of Athens and the Athens University founded by Ioannis Kapodistrias.
The original idea for establishing a National Library was from the philhellene Johann Mayer in an 1824 article of his newspaper Greek Chronicles. His idea was implemented in 1829 by the Greek government, who grouped the Library with other institutions such as museums and schools. These were placed in a building on the island Aegina and supervised by Andreas Moustoksidis.
At the end of 1830 the National Library had 1.018 printed books and in 1834 it was relocated to Athens, the new capital, at first in the public bath in the Roman Market.
From purchases and donations of books the collection increased rapidly and in 1842 it merged with Athens University’s library and housed together at the building of Otto’s University.
On 1888 the foundation stone for the neoclassical marble building was laid. It was designed by Baron Theophil von Hansen.
The library has 4,500 Greek manuscripts which is one of the greatest collection of Greek scripts in the world. There are also many chrysobulls and archives of the Greek Revolution.
Among the library's holdings are a codex of the four Gospels attributed to the scribe Matthew, uncial codex with a fragment Gospel of Matthew from 6th century , a historic Byzantine dictionary, and the first publication of Homer's epics and hymns.
The building is a jewel of marble, a classic sample of mature Neoclassicism. It consists of three solid parts, out of which the one in the middle -which is also the biggest- houses the Reading-Room. To enter this part, one has to pass through a Doric-style row of columns (designed after the Temple of Hephaestus in the Ancient Agora of Thission, which served as its model), after climbing on a monumental curved double staircase of a Renascence style. The Reading-Room, surrounded by Ionian-style columns, is covered by a glass ceiling. The cast-iron constructions of the bookstands were referred to as exceptional back in their time.
Phone numbers +30 210 3226549, 3214413
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