Poznań: If you have more time...
Raczyński Library / PRZEMYSLAW GRAF / AGENCJA GAZETA
Raczyński Library
The library building, founded by Edward Raczyński, was built between 1822 and 1829. It is Classicial, with 12 pairs of cast-iron Corinthian columns, imitating the pattern of Louvre's Eastern Façade. It was destroyed during World War II, rebuilt between 1953 and 1956 and renovated in 1998.
Raczyński Library was the first public library in the Prussian territories of Poland, opened in 1829. The founder's will was for it to become city's property. The beginning of the collection was the donation of thousands of volumes by the founder and it grew to 165,000 volumes in 1939. In 1943 the most valuable volumes were evacuated to Obrzyck, Józef Aleksander Raczyński's estate. This way 17,000 volumes survived, mainly manuscripts, incunabula and antique books. The rest left in Poznan burned in 1945.
At present the library has 1.6 million volumes. The most valuable ones are: the manuscript of codex from 1460, containing a collection of theological treatise by Augustus Triumphus of Ancona, antique books - polonika, among them works by Stanislaus Hosius (1553), Łukasz Górnicki (1566), Mikołaj Rej (1568), Poznan's old prints from Melchior Nehring's printing house (1577) and Jesuits' printing house (17th and 18th century)