The Biblioteca Nacional is one of the greatest treasures of Madrid. It is a historic building and from its books we are able to know about the development and progress of Spanish society. In order to visit it, all you need is your identity card. Making a trip into culture inside this mythical building, is really a worthwhile and fascinating experience. If you have never been there, we suggest reading this article and after, you will want to visit it. We go to our section, Places with a lot of History, where we have recently written about Edificio Torres Blancas.

MORE THAN 300 YEARS OF HISTORY

The Biblioteca Nacional was inaugurated in 1712 by king FelipeV. Its original name was Biblioteca Real and it had 8.000 books. In 1836, the name was changed to Biblioteca Nacional and it became a public library instead of a private one, as it had been before. In 1896, the final location was purchased in Nº 20, Paseo de Recoletos.

It is estimated that it has more than 30 million books, published in Spain since the beginning of the XVIII century. Apart from books, there are also valuable maps, engravings, drawings, magazines, manuscripts, music scores and even slate and vinyl records.

Throughout the years, many private collections from church and military institutions were donated to the Biblioteca Nacional. As a result, its heritage has become one of the most valuable in the world. If you view this video, you will see what it is like:

ABSENCE OF CONTROL

In the XIX century, many writers criticized bitterly the running and the functioning of the Biblioteca Nacional. In those days, there was not a strict control concerning the literary works that were added. Because of this lack of control, constant thefts took place.

Many collectors bribed the librarians in order to acquire books. Important literary works also disappeared in the XX century, and these thefts continued after the arrival of democracy. We can mention, for instance, the disappearance of numerous comic books.

Pictures: Biblioteca Nacional de España