Madrid Travel Guide: National Library Museum - Museo del Biblioteca Nacional

With over three million volumes, Spain's national library and the National Library Museum has been called the 'Prado of paper'. Among the wealth of printed matter in the National Library Museum there is every work published in Spain since 1716, Greek papyri, Arab, Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, Nebrija's first Spanish grammar, bibles, and drawings by Goya, Velázquez, Rembrandt and many others.

Given the precious and fragile nature of the texts, access to the National Library Museum was limited to scholars, but in 1996 the administration opened the National Library Museum to allow the public a glimpse of the library's riches. The displays in the National Library Museum are conceived as interactive, steering visitors through bibliographical history via multimedia applications including laser shows, videos and holographs.

Address Biblioteca Nacional, Paseo de Recoletos 20
Transport Metro Colón .
Telephone 91 580 77 72
Open 10am-8pm Tue-Sat; 10am-1pm Sun.

Admission free.