Sainte-Geneviève library
The Sainte-Geneviève library is located on the Place du Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement of Paris and, as an early example of cast iron construction, is an important work by Henri Labrouste , who had the library built according to his plans from 1843 to 1851. For the first time in France, a library was not designed as an extension of a monastery or a castle, but as a reference library that should be accessible to the public. Le Corbusier described the building as the first step on the way to "modern architecture".
The library today contains around two million documents from all fields of knowledge. It emerged from the books of the monastery of the same name , the beginnings of which date back to the 6th century and which was one of the most important and largest monasteries in Paris.
construction
The fire hazard, which always had to be considered when building libraries, suggested the use of iron as a new building material in the 19th century. Most of the library buildings from this period contain iron structures, but these are not visible or are located in subordinate rooms such as book stacks. With Labrouste, on the other hand, the iron is visible , almost staged , making the construction and function of the building visible. In the first reactions this brought him u. a. the criticism of Gottfried Semper , who accused him of having installed an "unfortunate visible [iron] roof structure" in his library in Sainte-Geneviève .
The facade in the form of the Italian Renaissance bears the names of 810 famous poets, thinkers and researchers in the parapet fields of the windows of the reading room. The bookshelves are behind the nameplates.
On the ground floor to the left and right of the vestibule, protected from light, the book magazines, a collection of rare books, prints, manuscripts and the administration rooms are stored. The separate staircase is at the end of the vestibule at the rear of the building. While it is still relatively dark in the vestibule, the stairwell brightens up with every step.
The 1780 m² rectangular reading room above covers the entire upper floor and is divided along the middle by sixteen iron columns . The high, light-flooded reading room measures 80 m in length, 17 m in width and 15 m in height. Cast-iron, fluted iron supports, which form into arches and support the hall ceiling, two parallel barrel vaults, rest on the sixteen stone plinths . The vaults are covered on the outside by an iron gable roof . The shear forces of the two barrel vaults are absorbed by stone pillars inside the building. The walls are lined with books up to a height of 5 m. At a height of 2.5 m, a gallery runs around the hall, which can be reached by four corner stairs. Floor-level book shelves below the gallery create small spaces between the outer wall and the reading room, behind which there are further narrow stairs. The books are transported from the magazine to the reading room via two narrow spiral staircases at the two corners of the building. The reading room is illuminated with daylight from high side windows; gas lighting was originally installed in the reading room. Since the tables were changed in 1930, the reading room has had 700 workstations. All ornaments as well as the turned chairs with low backs are designed by Labrouste.
Facade system: names of famous poets, thinkers and researchers in the window parapets
Ground floor plan
Basilical floor plan of the upper floor with the reading room
Section through the reading room: arches of the iron structure for the barrel vault and iron roof structure
Cast iron structure
Movies
- The Sainte-Geneviève library. Documentation, France, 2009, 26:15 min., Director: Juliette Garcias, production: arte France, Les Films d'Ici, series: Baukunst , first broadcast in Germany: October 30, 2011, summary by arte.
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Hugo Cabret . Feature film, USA, 2011, 127 min., Director: Martin Scorsese .
Twelve-year-old Hugo Cabret reads with Isabelle about the beginnings of film in the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, which functions there as the “library of the film academy” (from 69 minutes).
Web links
literature
- Konrad Rückbrod, University and College. Building history and building type, Darmstadt 1977, ISBN 3-534-07634-6
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Sainte-Geneviève Library ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) at arte , 2009.
- ^ Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève , official website
Coordinates: 48 ° 50 ′ 49.5 " N , 2 ° 20 ′ 45" E