Address:
Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28
00-927 Warsaw
The Old Library of University of Warsaw was built in 1894. It was extremely modern for its time: the library was able to hold 750,000 volumes, and the large storage space resembled a huge steel grille. The venerable building was emptied in 1999, when the new Main Library opened at Powiśle. Subsequently it was thoroughly rebuilt; in effect, the building now merges architectural modernity with tradition. Currently it contains lecture rooms. Fragments of the impressive steel construction are still visible in the former storage space of the Library. An interesting fact is that during the 2nd World War Czesław Miłosz, the future Nobel Prize laureate, worked in the Old Library as a janitor.
