Europe’s most innovative library has a rooftop botanical garden
Standing on the garden roof of the Warsaw University Library’s (Biblioteka Unwersytecka w Warsaw) makes you feel like you are in the middle of the universe or, at least, of Poland. You can see the Palace of Culture and Science spire, the Copernicus Science Centre next door, the basket-like PGE Narodowy Stadium, and the banks of Vistula river from the perch. Below, visible through large arching windows, it’s also easy to spot students sitting in the study rooms below, surrounded by stacks of books.
There’s an inherent appeal to library tourism–seeing the places where nations hold their collective knowledge and history. Warsaw University Library is a great place to stop. This intellectual hub, located at Dobra (“Good”) Street in Warsaw for only 26 years, has long been a symbol of the fight for knowledge. It has survived two World Wars, the November Uprising of 1830 and communism since its founding in 1816. The building is a departure from the Soviet style block architecture which has defined the character of the city. Librarian Lilianna Nalewajska says that the building’s exterior features a pink candy-colored grate, a symbol of the link between past and present, as well as a green façade with engravings depicting Plato, Polish Poet Jan Kochanowski and other classics. The building was constructed in 1999, just eight years after communism fell, and many of these works were not accessible to the public. Here you’ll find texts from various cultures and attitudes. Visitors enter the light through the books.”The minimalist building is made of glass and steel. It was designed to maximize the amount of light during the short winter days. The glass ceiling is covered with large green beams that create a metallic canopy reminiscent of a forest. The library was awarded a prize in 2002 by the Polish Minister of Infrastructure for its “outstanding qualities”. “
As Nalewajska points out, the symbolism in the entrance is evident throughout the building. This is especially noticeable in the statues that flank the entryway, Demosthenes, and Sophocles.
