National Library of Kosovo
Lattice-clad 1982 landmark topped by 99 domes, Kosovo's national and university library.
The National Library of Kosovo stands in the university quarter of Pristina, between the student centre and the cathedral. It was designed by the Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjaković, built between 1971 and 1982 and opened on 25 November 1982. The composition stacks fifteen cubic volumes of different sizes and covers them with ninety-nine domes, which bring daylight down into the reading rooms. The whole building is wrapped in a metal lattice that reads as a net or grille over the concrete and glass beneath.
Mutnjaković described the design as an attempt to draw on both Byzantine and Ottoman building traditions rather than on the international modernism then standard in Yugoslavia, and the domes are often compared with the white plis cap worn in Albanian dress. The library traces its institutional history to 1944 and today holds around two million items, including manuscripts, early printed books and the legal deposit of Kosovo. It carries the name of the seventeenth-century writer Pjetër Bogdani and hosts exhibitions and readings.
Highlights
- Ninety-nine domes of varying size lighting the reading rooms
- Metal lattice skin over stacked concrete cubes
- Designed by Andrija Mutnjaković and completed in 1982
- Holdings of about two million items, including manuscripts
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