Belgrade City Library

Belgrade City Library is a public library located in the heart of Belgrade. It is one of the oldest and largest libraries in Serbia, with a rich history dating back to the early 19th century.
It also hosts a variety of cultural events, such as book launches, literary evenings, and exhibitions. It is a popular destination for both locals and tourists, who come to enjoy its serene reading rooms and attend its many events.

The Belgrade City Library is the largest lending library in Serbia. It includes 13 municipal libraries from the territory of the City of Belgrade. Its holdings consist of almost 2,000,000 items kept in 74 facilities with a total area of 13,000 square meters.

Since October 1986, the Belgrade City Library has been located at 56 Knez Mihailova Street, in the former building of the hotel Srpska kruna. The hotel was constructed around 1867 and at that time was the most modern, elegant and best equipped hotel in Belgrade. It was most probably constructed by the Krsmanović family – a family of rich merchants.

The construction of the building was manifested as a renaissance model. The characteristic windows, which end in arches richly decorated in plastic art, present the building’s basic element of style. The first floor is also decorated by two balconies with iron railings, the shape of which suggests Romanticism. The building has a rich roof ridge and a segmental arch above the front entrance. The forefront of the hotel was decorated in decorative plastic art in the neostylic form, which was very popular in the 19th century. The building was reconstructed in 1986 for the purposes of Belgrade City Library according to the design of Svetislav Vučenović.

The Srpska kruna hotel had spacious, arched halls for its cafe, restaurant and beer-hall, rooms on the upper floor and store rooms in the basement. The ground floor of the hotel was composed of the cafe, the pool room, the reading-room for daily newspapers and the dining lounge, where windows and doors led to the veranda overlooking the park. Due to its view of the park, this balcony especially attracted guests, so much so that in summer months it was difficult to find a seat there. The 1908 Guidebook to Belgrade noted that the Srpska kruna hotel had as many as 17 rooms and that it was a first-class hotel intended for foreigners and local rich people. Concerts took place in the hotel three times a week. It was also used to host secret freemason conferences.

The building has maintained its original appearance. Apart from its undisputable beauty, it is additionally valuable for its exceptional location on the very end of the most beautiful city street – promenade, which leads to the most attractive and best-known park of Belgrade - Kalemegdan.

It was a wonderful, emotional poetic evening of the poetry writer young Milan Gajić with his guests and a lot of public... Unforgettable!

Sjajno zdanje i građevina. Prepuno je autentičnih remek dela i vizuelno je zaista lepo doći i uživati.

Preporuka je za svakoga da dođe i uveri se u jedan istonski kvalitet. Knjiga - nešto što nama svima danas zaista medostaje...

Eng.
Amazing facility. Full wirh authentic master pieces and it is nice to enjoy at visual effect.

I recomend to everyone to come and see truenhistorical quality. The book - something needed nowadays to all of us.

Welcome!

Excellent organization, fully dedicated to readers, the highest quality of service. Also, very interesting cultural and art exibions programs, public lectures covering wide selection of topics. If not for books, should be visited for paintings or lectures.

Old building from outside but modern Library inside 😁 very friendly and well managed public library in the center of the Downtown Belgrade. One can visit freely the Library Exhibitions and writer Book Promotions ❤

Located in the central street of Belgrade, this library has a very rich book fund. It is quiwt and full of daylight, it works even on Saturdays, which is ideal for students and busy people. To become a member, you need your ID and 1500 dinars to pay the annual fee. The librarians are competent and kind. Very pleasant place with intereating and useful books, be it literature, humanities or science.

The building used to be the most famous hotel in Belgrade, the Serbian Crown, which was due to be converted into the city library. Architects dug out the basement only to find the foundations of a wall and tower of the main city gate from Roman times, part of the northern defenses of the 2nd or 3rd century BC, and around which the settlement of Signidunum (present-day Belgrade) grew. There is a small collection of sculptures, altars and gravestones in the Roman Hall but what is most fascinating is the water pipe which transferred water 10 km away. It is said that when the Ottomans (the present-day Turks) occupied Belgrade and found the pipes they decided to gather all the workers who were working on maintenance and take them back to Constantinople, (present-day Istanbul) to maintain their Roman water pipes.
Visit the City Library not juts for books but for an excellent piece of hidden history of Belgrade.

Great place to study or read books. They also have a section which is open to public (you don't have to be a member to use it, in Serbia, for most libraries you have to pay for membership).

All around year they held cultural programs. In basement exists real archeologic site from roman period, conserved turned into conference chamber .

A perfect place for booklovers. Many interesting events.

A very high quality and professionally-managed library with, although sometimes a bit rude, very helpful staff.

Very nice place for peaceful reading and studying in city center

A library very rich in books with very open minded and friendly staff.

Super!

Please to atmosphere and a lot of interesting things to see.

We have to thank to Austrians

This beautiful institution ❤

Excellent service.

Beautiful and old...