National Library of Chile

Coordinates: 33°26′32″S 70°38′45″W / 33.4421°S 70.6457°W / -33.4421; -70.6457
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National Library of Chile
Front view of the National Library of Chile building
Map
33°26′32″S 70°38′45″W / 33.4421°S 70.6457°W / -33.4421; -70.6457
LocationSantiago
Established1813
BranchesN/A
Collection
Size1,100,000 registries[1]
Access and use
Population served66,167,182 members of the public
Other information
DirectorPedro Pablo Zegers Blachet
Website[1]

The National Library of Chile (

Santiago
, in a building completed in 1925, though its history reaches to the early nineteenth century before it was relocated to its current home.

History

The Aurora de Chile, Chile's first newspaper, is kept at the Biblioteca Nacional.

The Biblioteca Nacional is, together with the

Disaster of Rancagua, in which the national troops were defeated by the army of the realistas. With the victorious Battle of Chacabuco, it was reopened and supported by the government, and started to receive important collections. The Supreme Director of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins, named professor Manuel de Salas as the first director of the Biblioteca Nacional. In 1822 Friar Camilo Henríquez (director of the Aurora de Chile
newspaper) was named as the second head librarian.

Since its creation, the library had been a dependency of the

Cerro Santa Lucía. At the creation in 1929, the library was made into a dependency of the Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos
.

Location

Chilean Hallroom (Sección Chilena) of the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile

Since 1925, Biblioteca Nacional has been situated in the centre of

Municipal Theater of Santiago
).

Construction of the present building began in 1913. It was commissioned as one of the commemorative public works in honour of the first

Cerro Santa Lucía
.

The interior, spread out over two main levels and a basement, has been embellished and decorated with carved marble staircases, sculptures and paintings from some of the country's classic artists, such as Alfredo Helsby and Arturo Gordon.

Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, Computers hall, details of the doors

Collections

The Biblioteca Nacional has an extensive and valuable collection of books and manuscripts. Several of these were acquired from or donated by their owners, making up an important national historical treasure. The most important collections include:

Name Year
Mariano Egaña 1846
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna 1861
Andrés Bello 1865
Claude Gay 1873
José Ignacio Eyzaguirre Portales 1878
Diego Portales 1878
Aníbal Pinto 1885
Diego Barros Arana 1920
José Toribio Medina 1925
Enrique Matta Vial 1940
Raúl Silva Castro 1970
Guillermo Feliú Cruz 1974
Antonio Doddis 1974

See also

References

  1. ^ "Descubre la Biblioteca Nacional".
  2. ISBN 978-0-8223-7318-6
    . Retrieved 2022-10-16.

Further reading
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