Tour of the New Building

New Building of the National Library of Russia

The New Building of the Library is a modern beautiful complex decorated with marble and granite, with a lot of light windows on the ceeling dome. This elegant construction was designed by the city's famous architects Vladimir Scherbin and Lydia Warschawskaya and built in 1986. In the composition of the library, the theme of the rotunda is the leitmotif. An annular colonnade forms a peculiar round lobby in the open air. The entrance to this outdoor lobby is marked with two granite spheres in the traditional Petersburg style.

In the front of the building, there are 6 fountains: granite cups not only beautify the yard but also provide cooling water for the air conditioning system. A composition of 10 allegorical sculptures adorn the round facade of the New Building of the National Library of Russia. All figures were designed and made of electro deposited copper by the sculptors Boris Svinjin and Alexander Mursin. Among them, we can recognize The Religion, The Justice, The Theatre, The Music, The Philosophy, The Medicine, The Achitecture, The Mechanics, The Aeronautics, The Viniculture.

The New Building of the library is one of the biggest in Europe. It has total square footage reaching 63.000 sq. meters and can accommodate 2000 readers at one time. 16 light reading rooms contain a wide range of literature in every sphere of knowledge. Now the National Library of Russia houses about 40 million items...

The internal layout resembles a palace of culture. Marble is used extensively throughout the building. The interior walls are ornamented with 37 mosaic panels depicting scenes from the Bible and quoting wise sayings about reading and knowlage.

During the tour, visitors can see how books are stored. They will get information about the architecture of the building, learn more about its collections, reading rooms and services.

Details

The tours are arranged on weekdays from 10:00 to 16:00, except Saturday, Sunday, the last Tuesday of every month and state holidays.

The tours are available for groups of up to 15 people per guide.

The tours will take about an hour and start from the Reader Entrance from Moskovsky Prospect.

Please note! Coats and bags (including backpacks) should be left in the cloakroom.

Advance booking is recommended. To book a tour you should write us date, time and number of people. You can order the guided tour of the New Building by e-mail - novikova@nlr.ru:

Tours are conducted in Russian and English. For other language-speaking groups, we work through an interpreter.

Fee:

group tour (6-15 people) - 600 rubles per person (an ecsort interpreter attends the tour with no fee);
individual tour (up to 5 people) - 3000 rubles.

Duration: ~1 hour
Age requirement: 12+
Address: 165/2, Moskovsky Prospekt
Contact us: +7(812) 415-97-51, novikova@nlr.ru, Galina Novikova
Date and time: on weekdays from 10:00 to 16:00, except Saturday and Sunday, the last Tuesday of every month and state holidays