National Library


32 Panepistimiou St, Athens, 1885-1892

Architect
Theophilus von Hansen (1913-1891)
Associate architect
Ernst Ziller (1837-1923)



The National Library is the third building of the "Athenian Trilogy", the major and highly influential neoclassical group in the centre of the Greek capital.
The general plan of the Trilogy on Panepistimiou St, that was designed by Hansen on commission from King Otho in 1859 during Hansen’s residence in Athens, provided for a monumental building to the left of the University that would function as a counterweight to the Academy to its right.
The National Library was funded by the Vallianos brothers. On this building, Hansen used Ziller’s basic ideas with regard to the main façade, which was a two-storey building with a large exterior staircase. The infrastructure was of limestone and upper floor of Pentelic marble. Owing however to the small size of the lot and its steep slope, the tripartite articulation of the ground plan was condensed and the building placed on a foundation that constituted its basement. Thus the height of the two marble staircases leading up to the elevated porch increased dramatically, and the stairs with their curved shape, ornate balustrade and monumental lamps lend the building an eclecticist character.
On the façade of the central wing there is a magnificent hexastyle porch in the Doric order, designed on the basis of the original on the Theseion.
The interior of the National Library is the work of Ziller. The vestibule in the main hall of the reading room has neoclassical polychromy. The layout of the reading room is characterised by unity and supervisability. It is lighted by a large skylight in the centre of the ceiling, and surrounded by an Ionic colonnade with eight columns on the long sides and four on the short. The metal bookcases in the hall are of particular construction and stylistic interest.
The subdivision of the main façade into three sections, with the two lateral buildings being book stacks and the projecting section of the reading room, lends a feeling of balance to the whole. The lateral elevations, with the twelve columns of the windows ensuring abundant natural light, are well articulated, while the administration buildings at the back are unadorned. The sculptured decoration in the original design was not finally executed, with the exception of the decoration of the front pediment by the Viennese sculptor Schwerzek, who was in Athens at the time to study the Parthenon pediments.


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