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National Library of Chile | |
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33°26′32″S70°38′45″W / 33.4421°S 70.6457°W | |
Location | Santiago |
Established | 1813 |
Branches | N/A |
Collection | |
Size | 1,100,000 registries [1] |
Access and use | |
Population served | 66,167,182 members of the public |
Other information | |
Director | Pedro Pablo Zegers Blachet |
Website |
The National Library of Chile (Spanish : Biblioteca Nacional de Chile) is the national library of Chile. It is located on the Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins in Santiago, in a building completed in 1925, though its history reaches to the early nineteenth century before it was relocated to its current home.
The Biblioteca Nacional is, together with the Instituto Nacional and a small number of institutions, one of the first institutions created by the newly formed Republic of Chile in the Patria Vieja period. In the newspaper El Monitor Araucano , a Proclama de Fundación ("Proclamation of Foundation") of the Biblioteca Nacional was published on August 19, 1813. With this vision, a call was made to all the citizens to submit their books for the formation of one great public library. [2] As with other republican institutions, the library was closed after the Disaster of Rancagua, in which the national troops were defeated by the army of the realistas . With the victorious Battle of Chacabuco, it was reopened and supported by the government, and started to receive important collections. The Supreme Director of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins, named professor Manuel de Salas as the first director of the Biblioteca Nacional. In 1822 Friar Camilo Henríquez (director of the Aurora de Chile newspaper) was named as the second head librarian.
Since its creation, the library had been a dependency of the Universidad de San Felipe and its successor, the Universidad de Chile, until it gained autonomy in 1852. In 1913, upon its 100th anniversary, the Biblioteca Nacional acquired the Monasterio de Santa Clara, located on the Alameda de las Delicias on present-day Cerro Santa Lucía. At the creation in 1929, the library was made into a dependency of the Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos .
Since 1925, Biblioteca Nacional has been situated in the centre of Santiago, Chile. It was formerly located in the square where now stands the Teatro Municipal de Santiago (Municipal Theater of Santiago).
Construction of the present building began in 1913. It was commissioned as one of the commemorative public works in honour of the first centenary of the independence of Chile. The building boasts an imposing façade of columns and arches, of very pronounced French neoclassical influence. The library shares its building with the Archivo Nacional de Chile (the National Archive). Adjoining the building is the Santa Lucía metro station, and to the east is Cerro Santa Lucía.
The interior, spread out over two main levels and a basement, has been embellished and decorated with carved marble staircases, sculptures and paintings from some of the country's classic artists, such as Alfredo Helsby and Arturo Gordon.
The Biblioteca Nacional has an extensive and valuable collection of books and manuscripts. Several of these were acquired from or donated by their owners, making up an important national historical treasure. The most important collections include:
Name | Year |
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Mariano Egaña | 1846 |
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna | 1861 |
Andrés Bello | 1865 |
Claude Gay | 1873 |
José Ignacio Eyzaguirre Portales | 1878 |
Diego Portales | 1878 |
Aníbal Pinto | 1885 |
Diego Barros Arana | 1920 |
José Toribio Medina | 1925 |
Enrique Matta Vial | 1940 |
Raúl Silva Castro | 1970 |
Guillermo Feliú Cruz | 1974 |
Antonio Doddis | 1974 |
Santiago, also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of seven million, representing 40% of Chile's total population. Most of the city is situated between 500–650 m (1,640–2,133 ft) above sea level.
Concepción is a city and commune in south-central Chile, and the geographical and demographic core of the Greater Concepción metropolitan area, one of the three major conurbations in the country. It has a significant impact on domestic trade being part of the most heavily industrialized region in the country. It is the seat of the Concepción Province and the capital of the Bío Bío Region. It sits about 500 km south of the nation's capital, Santiago.
Viña del Mar is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as La Ciudad Jardín, Viña del Mar is located within the Valparaíso Region, and it is Chile's fourth largest city with a population of 324,836. Viña del Mar is also part of the Greater Valparaíso area, the country's second largest metropolitan area, after the Metropolitan area of Santiago. The Greater Valparaíso Area is home to five municipalities: Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Concon, Quilpue and Villa Alemana.
Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme was a Chilean independence leader who freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. He was a wealthy landowner of Basque-Spanish and Irish ancestry. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile (1817–1823), he is considered one of Chile's founding fathers, as he was the first holder of this title to head a fully independent Chilean state.
The Supreme Director of Chile was the Head of State and of Government of Chile in the periods of 1814 and 1817-1826.
Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, popularly known as 'La Alameda', is the main avenue of Santiago, Chile. It runs east-west in the centre of the greater urban area and is 7.77 km (4.83 mi) long, and it has up to 5 lanes in each direction. It was named after Chile's founding father Bernardo O'Higgins. It was originally a branch of the Mapocho River.
Santa Lucia, is a station on the Santiago Metro in Santiago, Chile. It is underground, between the stations Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica on the same line. It is located on Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, in the commune of Santiago. The station was opened on 31 March 1977 as part of the extension of the line from La Moneda to Salvador.
The National Archives of Chile is a public organization of the Chilean state, created in 1927 with the goal to "collect and conserve the archives of the Departments of State and all the documents and manucsrpits related to the national history, and to oversee their organization and use". It is treated as a dependent organization of the Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, which is administered by the Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes de Chile.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the Republic of Chile.
Universidad de Chile station is a transfer station between the Line 1 and Line 3 of the Santiago Metro. It is an underground station located between La Moneda and Santa Lucía stations on the same line. It is located at the junction of Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, also known as "Alameda", and Paseo Ahumada in the commune of Santiago. The Line 1 station was opened on 31 March 1977 as part of the extension of the line from La Moneda to Salvador. The Line 3 station was opened on 22 January 2019 as part of the inaugural section of the line, from Los Libertadores to Fernando Castillo Velasco.
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna was a Chilean writer, journalist, historian and politician. Vicuña Mackenna was of Irish and Basque descent.
Biblioteca Santiago Severin is a public library located in Valparaiso, Chile. It was the first public library created with the consent of the Chilean government and was established on February 27, 1873. It holds 80,000 volumes. The current building was built between 1912 and 1919, was damaged during the February 27, 2010 earthquake and later restored. It was declared National Monument in 1998.
The National Astronomical Observatory of Chile is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Department of Astronomy of the University of Chile (UCh). It is located on Cerro Calán, a hill in the commune of Las Condes. The commune is an eastern suburb of Santiago located in Santiago Province of the Santiago Metropolitan Region. OAN was founded in 1852 and became a part of UCh in 1927. The facility on Cerro Calán was completed in 1962.
The Legion of Merit of Chile, frequently abbreviated to the Legion of Merit or the Legion, was a Chilean multi-class order of merit established on 1 June 1817 by Bernardo O'Higgins to recognise distinguished personal merit contributing to the independence of Chile or to the nation. Membership of the Legion conferred a variety of privileges in Chile and its members were entitled to wear insignia according to the class conferred. The Legion of Merit of Chile was abolished in 1825.
Ambrosio Bernardo O'Higgins y O'Higgins, 1st Marquess of Osorno born Ambrose Bernard O'Higgins, was an Irish-Spanish colonial administrator and a member of the O'Higgins family.
Pichilemu, originally known as Pichilemo, is a beach resort city and commune in central Chile, and capital of Cardenal Caro Province in the O'Higgins Region. The commune comprises an urban centre and twenty-two villages, including Ciruelos, Cáhuil, and Cardonal de Panilonco. It is located southwest of Santiago. Pichilemu had over 13,000 residents as of 2012.
The Royal University of San Felipe was a university created by King Philip V in 1738, in territory which was then part of the Kingdom of Spain. It was officially founded in Santiago in 1747 and began teaching activities in 1758. It is the immediate predecessor of the University of Chile (1843).
The Casa Central de la Universidad de Chile, also known as Palacio de la Universidad de Chile, is the main building for the Universidad de Chile, and is located at 1058 Alameda Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, in Santiago, Chile. The building dates from 1872, and currently houses the rectorate, rooms used for ceremonial events and the university's Andrés Bello Archives. It was declared a National Monument of Chile in 1974.