The new National Library of Romania located on Unirii Blvd. will open thus Thursday (December 15) at 13.00. Minister of Culture Kelemen Hunor will preside at the inauguration ceremony that will mark the completion of work on a building started back in 1986, during the Communist period. The National Library's collections and administrative apparatus, currently on Ion Ghica Street, will be transferred gradually to the new headquarters.

From January 2012, the new headquarters will host-one off events. Other operations will start during spring 2012, and by next autumn the National Library will be completely rehoused in the new site. In 2013 collections currently in storage will be transferred to the National Library.

The building will include reading halls, event halls, coffee shops, multimedia areas and a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the Dambovita river.

Aedificia Carpati won the contract with the Ministry of Culture in March 2009 for the completion of construction work on the building. The offer submitted by construction company to complete the new headquarters of the National Library was EUR 69.9 million excluding VAT, with a 30-month execution period.

Work started on the building, originally planned as a library, during Ceausescu's regime, but construction came to a halt after the revolution. The building then stood half finished until 2009 when Aedificia Carpati  won the tender for its completion.

Alex Camburu, alex.camburu@romania-insider.com
(photo source: Romanian Culture Ministry)