Sanctuary of the spirit

The National and University Library building was built in the year of 1936 on the site of the former Auersperg Palace, which suffered severe damage from the earthquake in the year of 1895, therefore it had to be demolished.

Architect Joze Plecnik started to design the library in 1927. The initial groundwork and the construction started in year of 1936. The construction of the "sanctuary of the spirit", as envisioned by the architect Plecnik was finished before the beginning of the second WW (Slovenia) in year of 1941. In the year of 1944, a German military fighter plane attempted an emergency landing on the flat library roof and crashed (library), consequently 60.000 books were destroyed.

The building is a four story and four wing, in the shape of an irregular rectangle with two small inner courts. The exterior surface was made from various materials such as bricks and stone blocks of different sizes. In the interior is a number of excellent architectural details, made of marble, bronze or wood. The main reading room is a popular with students and seats 240.

The National and University Library building is the most monumental creation of Slovenian architect Joze Plecnik.

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Europe / Slovenia

Lat: 46° 2' 51" N
Long: 14° 30' 13" E

Elevation: 292

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Nikon D2H / Nikkor 10.5 mm ( F22, expositure 30 sec. each shot)/ Manfrotto QTVR head / Photovista + PanoCube Plus

I was in Brazil in November and left undone some cave projects which were planed for that time. After my return home, I have spent most of my time with my cave project and in front of my computer screens doing the cabinetwork. I did not have much time to think about my participation to sanctuary project. I do feel calm inside the caverns and underground passages so such places are a kind of sanctuary to me...[ Pisani rov - underground pano]. However, that would be another pano from the karst... and I wanted something different. When I was a student I was quite often in the National University Library which was designed as the sanctuary of the spirit as envisioned by the arcihtect Plecnik in 1927. The building was even built as a temple. The main reading room was a kind of shelter and the sanctuary with me. I have phoned to the administration office for the permission to take some panos inside but I needed to write the application. It was approved the next day but with the time limit for the main reading room where I intended to take the pano for www. It was quite dark inside the main reading room so I did the exposition of 30 sec. for each shot.

NUK- Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica. Stavba Narodne in univerzitetne knjižnice je bila zgrajena na mestu pozorenesančnega knežjega dvorca, ki je bil močno poškodovan v potresu leta 1895 in ga je zato bilo potrebno porušiti. Načrt za knjižnico je začel pripravljati arhitekt Jože Plečnik že leta 1927. Temelji za gradnjo so bili položeni leta 1936. Gradnja knjižnice "svetišča duhovnosti", kot jo je pojmoval Plečnik je bila dokončna malo pred pričetkom druge svetovne vojne v Sloveniji leta 1941. Januarja 1944 je na knjižnico neuspešno zasilno pristal nemški lovec. Pri tem se je vnelo gorivo in v požaru, ki ga je povzročila nesreča je bilo uničenih 60.000 knjig. V tlorisu je knjižnica v obliki trapeza s štirimi trakti, ki obdajajo notranje dvorišče. Vmesni stopniščni trakt v črnem marmorju in peristil z 32 marmornimi stebri povezuje glavni vhod iz Turjaške ulice z veliko čitalnico. Velika čitalnica ima 240 sedežev in je priljubljena predvsem med študenti, saj v njej najdejo 'zatočišče' za svoj študij. Notranjost knjižnica se ponaša z lepo in obrtniško izdelano opremo. Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica (NUK)je najpomembnejše Plečnikovo delo v Ljubljani.