The National and University Library, Plečnik's largest building in Ljubljana

The story of Plečnik’s library

The library grew out of the old Lyceum library, which became the state reference library in 1919 and the central library of the new university in 1921. It operated in makeshift premises with just 18 reading seats. Plečnik started drawing the new building in 1927, and his plans ran into opposition from the authorities in Belgrade. According to the Ministry of Culture, they were only approved after student protests, and it was built between 1936 and 1941 on the site of the Renaissance Auersperg Palace, largely destroyed by the 1895 earthquake.

After 1945 it took its present name, and today it is at once the national library, the legal deposit library and the central humanities library of the University of Ljubljana. It keeps special collections of music, manuscripts, early printed books and maps, and since 2006 it has run dLib.si, the free Digital Library of Slovenia.

What to see: façade, staircase and reading room

The plan is an irregular rectangle of four wings, each four storeys high. The façade mixes brick with uneven stone blocks worked in different ways, and convex windows. Inside, the main staircase rises to a statue of Primož Trubar, who wrote the first printed books in Slovene. At the top is the great reading room, with 236 seats, open through four floors and lit through its east and west walls.

The street it faces, Vegova, is part of the green promenade that UNESCO recognised in 2021 within Plečnik’s works in Ljubljana, and from here that promenade continues towards French Revolution Square and Trnovo.

Opening hours and tickets

It is a working library, so visits have rules. Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm, you can see the central staircase and hall, the information centre, the Plečnik corridor in the basement with its permanent exhibition and the exhibition room, all free. On Saturdays from 2.30pm to 6pm, admission is €5 (free for under-15s) and includes the great reading room, with a guided tour at 4pm. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays. The library asks you not to photograph readers while it is open.

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Fitting it into a Ljubljana walk

It sits between the old town and Trnovo, a few minutes from the Triple Bridge. If Plečnik interests you, I would pair it with his house in Trnovo, covered in Plečnik House, and a walk by the river. My ranking for the rest of the city is in things to do in Ljubljana.

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