Foundation stone laid for the National Library of Greece
- When
- 1888
- Where
- National Library of Greece
- Episodes
- 1
The foundation stone for the new National Library of Greece building was laid in Athens on 16 March 1888. This event marked the beginning of construction for a neoclassical marble structure intended to house the library's collections. The library itself had been established earlier, evolving from initial collections gathered by philhellenes and institutional mergers under royal charter.
Episodes
Background and detail
Construction. The laying of the foundation stone on 16 March 1888 initiated the construction of a new neoclassical marble building in Athens. This structure was intended to serve as the primary home for the library's growing collections, which had previously been housed in university buildings or other institutional spaces. The event signifies a physical expansion of the library's capacity.
Legacy. The National Library of Greece remains the main public library of Greece, located in Athens. In 2018 the bulk of the library was relocated to a new 22,000-square meter building at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center on the Phaleron Bay "Delta", although the earlier building continues to house some of the library's current functions.
People involved
- Johann Jakob Meyer · Philhellene who proposed the original idea for establishing a National Library in 1824
- Andreas Moustoxydis · Supervisor of the institutions housed at the Aegina orphanage; named the library the National Library
Sources
- National Library of Greece Wikipedia, revision of 2026-01-22
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.