Weekly newsletter

The National Széchenyi Library’s New Warehouse a Modern Sanctuary for Cultural Heritage

MTI-Hungary Today 2024.07.31.

The National Széchényi Library (OSZK) recently inaugurated a new 11,000-square-meter archival warehouse in Piliscsaba (near Budapest), built with nearly HUF 25B (EUR 63.1M) in government funding.

This facility, featuring 81,000 linear meters of shelving, is designed to preserve Hungarian cultural treasures for the next 50 years. It includes a specialized server room for digital archives and a restoration laboratory.

The warehouse will store both physical and digital collections, ensuring the long-term preservation of the OSZK’s holdings and providing a secure location for irreplaceable museum documents. It is a high-security, protected area.

The building’s architecture, inspired by the shape of a book and designed by the TSPC Group, harmonizes with the Pilis hills’ landscape and reflects the legacy of Imre Makovecz (1935-2011), featuring elements that symbolize the library’s role in digitization.

This new repository also has the capacity to store the book collections of the Public Collections Center of the Hungarian National Museum, established in July. It is a significant addition to the cultural infrastructure, aimed at safeguarding and modernizing the nation’s written heritage.

Fact

Imre Makovecz, a prominent Hungarian architect, began his career in state planning companies and engaged in cultural projects to support declining villages. After a period of voluntary exile, he gained recognition with the Zsindelyes Guesthouse in 1979. In 1981, he founded Makona Design and became known for his unique organic architectural style.

The Catholic church in Paks by Imre Makovecz. Photo: Wikipedia

Notable works include the church in Paks (Central Hungary), the Evangelical Church of Siófok (southern shore of Lake Balaton), and the Hungarian pavilion at the 1992 Seville World Expo. His architecture, often using traditional materials like wood, aims to blend harmoniously with its surroundings.

Renaissance Codex the Centerpiece of a New Hungarian Library in Brussels
Renaissance Codex the Centerpiece of a New Hungarian Library in Brussels

The Philostratus Corvina is one of the most outstanding items in the Renaissance royal library of Matthias Corvinus.Continue reading

Via MTI; Featured Image: Facebook / Országos Széchényi Könyvtár


Array
(
    [1536x1536] => Array
        (
            [width] => 1536
            [height] => 1536
            [crop] => 
        )

    [2048x2048] => Array
        (
            [width] => 2048
            [height] => 2048
            [crop] => 
        )

)