Warsaw University Library
The Warsaw University Library was founded in 1816. Your first director was Samuel Bogumil Linde. In the early 20th century, a time modern library building was erected on the campus at the Krakowskie Przedmieście. It involved was Fritz Milkau. After 100 years, the construction of a new building that would meet the current demands of fire protection, urgently needed.
After the 1989 reunification, the building of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party Polish United Workers Party was declared state property. The idea to put a library in the typical office building, proved impractical. The building was leased to the newly founded Warsaw Stock Exchange, and the profits from the rental of construction of the new University Library in Powiśle district was funded.
In 1993, a competition was announced, the winning architects Marek Budzyński and Zbigniew Badowski. Construction began in 1995 and lasted until 1999.
Inaugurated on 15 December 1999 building consists of a four storey main block and a low front building with an intermediate passage. On the roof of a botanical garden with an area of 1.5 ha was established.
The total volume is 260,000 cubic meters, the floor space of 64,000 m².
At the entrance stand on four pillars, the statues of the philosopher Kazimierz Twardowski Jan Łukasiewicz, Alfred Tarski and Stanisław Leśniewski.
On the west facade there are eight panels with:
- Notes of a fragment of the b -minor etude by Karol Szymanowski,
- Mathematical formula for the normal distribution, the number Pi, the structure of a nucleic acid, among others
- A text in the Sanskrit language with fragments of the Rigveda, among other things,
- A text in Hebrew with the Old Testament text of Ezekiel 3:1-3,
- A text in Arabic from the "Book of Animals" (al- Jahiz )
- A text in Greek from the dialogue Phaedrus of Plato,
- A text in Old Russian language to the Primary Chronicle the early 12th century,
- A text in Old Polish language " explanation of virtue " by Jan Kochanowski.
The building with an unconventional architecture was to Warsaw landmark and a popular meeting point in Warsaw students.