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National Library of France

The National Library of France is spread across several Paris sites. At the historic Richelieu site, remodelled in the 2010s and early 2020s, you can see the Labrouste reading room, with nine glass domes supported by slender nine-metre cast-iron columns, and the Oval Room, a large space measuring 44 by 33 metres and 18 metres high, with glazed oculi and mosaics inscribed with the names of cities such as Nineveh, Athens, Rome or Paris. This same site houses the BnF museum, heir to the Cabinet des Médailles, which displays books, manuscripts, precious objects and works of art from its collections. Across the Seine, the François-Mitterrand complex, designed by Dominique Perrault and opened in 1996, is organised around four L-shaped glass and steel towers 80 metres high surrounding a central garden of 12,000 square metres closed to the public. The library also programmes temporary exhibitions, lectures and other cultural events, and maintains Gallica, its digital library with millions of documents.

Things to do at National Library of France: 2 missions

• Visit the Oval Room of the National Library of FranceSee the Oval Room, the latest addition to the site, opened in December 1936.
• Explore the BnF Museum at the Richelieu siteExplore the BnF Museum, where books, manuscripts, precious objects and artworks from its extensive collections are on display.

Near National Library of France

Source: bnf.fr