Nós Public Library

The first library in Ourense was founded in 1845. Its collections housed the archives of the confiscated monasteries, but in 1927 a fire in the building (currently the Otero Pedrayo High School) destroyed a large part of the collection and only a small number of copies could be saved.

After going through two new locations, in 2019 its current headquarters was inaugurated in the San Francisco cultural site. By popular proposal, it was named as Nós Public State Library, in reference to the generation of intellectuals from Ourense who created the Nós magazine.

This library is one of the city’s cultural references thanks to the amount and variety of proposals it offers: workshops, exhibitions, activities for all ages…

It currently has more than 160,000 books, and also magazines, newspapers and audiovisual documents. On the ground floor there is an open space which includes a baby library, a children’s and youth library, a comic library and multipurpose spaces. The thematic collections, reading rooms, periodical publications room and public Internet access are distributed on the two upper floors.

In addition to its collection of documents, it organizes many activities for all audiences such as storytellers, promotion of reading and thematic exhibitions. And it also makes its facilities available for organizing events. In this way, this library has become a multidisciplinary space that seeks to be a place where readers, and also non readers, have a free space in which to enjoy culture and knowledge.

The Building

It is a newly built facility with straight lines. Its interior is characterized by open spaces in which natural lighting stands out. On its façade, a stainless steel mesh acts as a curtain wall, regulating lighting and providing sun protection. The final project, designed by architects José Manuel Casabella López and José Luís Martínez Raído, is committed to energy improvement and sustainability, taking advantage of rainwater for a cistern, solar collectors to provide hot water and photovoltaic panels for the production of electricity.