Library – A portal where you decide what life and what timeline you want to step into for a brief while.
As we find different ways to buy, read and borrow books, visiting a library for a refill is something that we hardly do in the current decade. Nevertheless, It is a sanctum that should not disappear because it is a space that shows you the sheer volume of how many more lives that you haven’t peeked into. How many stories that you don’t know yet. How many different shoes you are yet to imagine yourself in.
During my recent trip to a few cities in Europe, visiting their libraries became a joyful event that i looked forward to in every new city I came across. As I walked down some of the old libraries, so many thoughts and questions ran through my mind. Who had access to them? Was it only the elite? Only learned men? What about women? From when did the women have access to such beautiful libraries? When did women start becoming librarians? What kind of books did these libraries have? How many books were too controversial to be kept there? How many were taken away from these shelves and burnt or shredded? Questions of history, that would tell a lot about us human being in the last few decades and centuries. Maybe some books perched on those shelves right now had the answer to all these questions.
Then there were the newer libraries too. A place open to all. A place filled with natural light pouring into the reading rooms. A place that also made me feel that how I could never read a lot of these books and never know the stories inside them as I could not read or understand the language that it was written in.
Whatever might be the questions and contemplations, they were beautiful spaces that I was happy to visit if only for a brief time. Here is a compilation of few such libraries.
Wiblingen Abbey Library, Ulm
This one is a surprise when you enter as the entry is a normal looking, slightly pastel shaded wooden door. Completed in 1744, and designed by Christian Wiedemann, this rococo style library is made completely of wood but painted to look like it’s made of marble. I had to go closer and touch the pillar to check that for myself. The door to the upper gallery is a secret door behind a statue! While some of the door you see are just painted on doors too.
Stadtbibliothek, Stuttgart
Stadtbibliothek in Stuttgart, Or ‘the cube’ as it looks like one from the outside. This is the city’s new public library from 2011 built by Korean architect Eun Young Yi. The symmetry of the building and the view from 8th floor and going down the levels as you see the structure from different angles is calming to the mind. Also the space of the reading rooms and the central atrium that gets in natural light form the top is a great space to loose oneself in a book or two.
I wish I knew the language of these books as most of the books are in German, It also has a 4 levels of empty space in the middle of the building called the heart of the building itself.
The library is open to people of all nations and just to demonstrate that: the word “Library” in silver letters is in English on the west wall, in German on the north, in Korean on the East and in Arabic on the south.
Strahov Monastary library, Prague
The Theological hall and the Philosophical hall of Strahov Monastary library of Prague.
University library of ELTE (EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY), Budapest
A library in the very prestigious Hungarian public research university ELTE of which I am member till the next October as I had to register free to enter! It is strange to say that this is the only library in the world that I am currently a member of and it is 1000s of miles away from me. This beautiful library was founded in the 16th century and completed in the current location in 1876, according to the plans of Antal Skalnitzky and Henrik Koch Jr.
This brilliant reading room was so calm and quite and I decided to sit and do a bit of writing and reading for the next one hour. I love that they have now incorporated bean bags too!
Szabo Ervin Library, Budapest
I clearly entered the wrong floor perhaps of the Szabo Ervin Library as instead of finding the wooden bookshelves and the wooden staircase in the library, I ended up finding the glass and green room filled with sunlight. This didn’t bother me at all as i loved the aesthetics of this public library. I then wandered from here to the children’s floor of the library. A wonderfully cosy room with soft toys and glass painting on the windows made by children along with rows and rows of colourful chrildren’s books.
Austrian National Library, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
The State Hall is the heart of the Austrian National Library. The biggest baroque styled library in Europe and it is stunning. The library was built by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach according to plans of his father, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach .
The dome frescho painted by Daniel Gran is beautiful. The library has an extensive collection of books, more than what is visible as part of its collection. Apart from books It has a huge collection of ancient maps and globes. A collection of papyrus from ages ago with tablets of stone, wax, leather, bones and of course paper too. It also has a collection of music.
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. ~Jorge Luis Borges
