Royal Castle Library, Warsaw
Warsaw, Poland · built 1764
The Royal Library in Warsaw (Biblioteka Królewska w Warszawie) is a prominent building located adjacent to the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland. Constructed between 1779 and 1783, the library was designed by architects Dominik Merlini and Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer to house the royal book collection of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last sovereign King of Poland. The library is an elongated structure measuring 56 x 9 meters, featuring 15 windows along its entrance hall and a terrace on the roof. Initially, the library housed approximately 7,500 items, which expanded to around 20,000 volumes by 1795. Following King Stanisław's death in 1798, the entire collection was acquired by Tadeusz Czacki, who later bequeathed it to the Liceum Krzemienieckie. After the 1830 November Uprising against the Russian occupation, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia ordered the library's relocation to Kiev, where it became the foundation of the new University Library.
Library data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).