Greek National Library
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The main building of the library
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| Established | 1832 |
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| Location | Athens |
| Coordinates | 37°58′52″N 23°43′59″E / 37.98111°N 23.73306°E |
| Branches | 2 (Αγία Παρασκευή/Agía Paraskeví & Νέα Χαλκηδόνα/Néa Chalkidóna) |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | books, journals, newspapers, magazines, multimedia and manuscripts |
| Criteria for collection | Material that is produced in Greece as well as Material that is produced abroad, but is connected with Greece in any language and form. |
| Other information | |
| Director | Fillipos Tsimpoglou (Φίλιππος Τσιμπόγλουv), general director. |
| Website | National Library of Greece |
The National Library of Greece (Greek: Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη) is situated near the center of city of Athens. It was designed by the Danish architect Theophil Freiherr von Hansen, as part of his famous Trilogy of neo-classical buildings including the Academy of Athens and the original building of the Athens University. It was founded by Ioannis Kapodistrias.
The original idea for establishing a National Library was from the philhellene Johann Jakob Mayer, in an August 1824 article of his newspaper Ellinika Chronika, published at Missolonghi, where Mayer and Lord Byron had been promoting Greece's independence. Mayer's idea was implemented in 1829 by the new Greek government of Ioannis Kapodistrias, who grouped together the National Library with other intellectual institutions such as schools, national museums, and printing houses. These were all placed in a building (then being used as an orphanage) on the island Aegina and supervised by Andreas Moustoxydis, who thus became president of the committee of the Orphanage, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and director of the National School.
At the end of 1830, the library, which Moustoxydis named the National Library, had 1,018 volumes of printed books, which had been collected from Greeks and philhellenes. In 1834, the Library was relocated to Athens, the new capital, and was at first housed temporarily in the public bath in the Roman Agora of Athens and then later in the Church of St. Eleftherios.
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