The cultural treasure of the city
Municipal Library of Patra
Adress: 110 Maizonos Str., Patras
Tel. of Reading Room +30 2610 224813
mail: [email protected]
https://patraslibrary.weebly.com
Municipal Library of Patra
The origins of the Municipal Library of Patras lie in the donation of the library of the “Patra Craft Company” to the Municipality of Patras in 1903.
Δημοτική Βιβλιοθήκη Πατρών – Αναγνωστήριο / Municipal Library of Patras – Reading Room
In 1908, after petitions through the local Press, the Municipal Library of Patras was founded, and the first Supervisory Committee was elected. The Library was housed in the school on the corner of Gounari and Karaiskaki Streets. Two years later, in 1910, the official opening ceremony took place.
The Library closed in 1926, abandoned, and its contents were stored in the basement of the Municipality until 1944, when a group of book lovers transported them to the house of former mayor Ioannis Vlachos and subsequently to the Karamandani Mansion, on 42 Maizonos Street.
Δημοτική Βιβλιοθήκη Πατρών – Αρχιτεκτονικό σχέδιο / Municipal Library of Patra – Floorplan
In 1947 the postwar Municipal Library was inaugurated, with 18,200 books, mostly donated by the public. In 1948, by royal decree, the Library became a legal entity governed by public law. In 1955 the new building was inaugurated, and the books transported there.
Since 2011, the Library is part of a newly founded legal entity governed by public law, under the name “Municipal Library-Cultural Organization of the Municipality of Patras”. It comprises the Central Library (110 Maizonos Street) and the Annex (Eleftheria Square, 26 Fokaias Street). The ground floor houses the Children’s Department and the Municipal Gallery. Visitors can use the reading room, borrow books, access the Internet, use the computers for research purposes, and there are workstations for people with disabilities.
Head of the Library is the librarion Ms. Aikaterini Kourou
Future plans
The Municipal Library of Patras falls under the category of public libraries. Within this framework, its plans include the restoration of the buildings and the upgrading of services and functions, in order to develop into a large central public library that will support the right to self-education and public education, providing access to every resident of the city. Furthermore, it may also become the centre of a network of municipal/public libraries in the neighbouring municipalities and regions.
Δημοτική Βιβλιοθήκη Πατρών – Εκπαιδευτικό πρόγραμμα / Municipal Library of Patra − Educational programme
For the moment, a study for the creation of a modern section for children/teenagers, a department for digital technologies and an exhibition of rare books and documents is underway.
Moreover, funding is being sought for the installation of digital services through the use of radio-frequency identification technology (RFID).
ΕΚΔΟΣΕΙΣ
National Library of Greece| LOGOS 15. “Translating ancient Chinese texts”| 19 June 2025
The National Library of Greece continues the cycle of events “Logos 15” curated by the President of the Board of Trustees of the National Library of Greece, Stavros Zoumboulakis. The second event is entitled “Translating ancient Chinese texts” and will take place on Thursday 19 June 2025, from 19:00 to 21:00, at the Book Tower of the National Library of Greece, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre. China is a country of fundamental texts on human thought, written in a language that few people in Europe and far fewer in Greece know. Sotiris Halikias learned ...More
New Museum – DESTE Foundation – The Benaki Museum| In a Bright Green Field| 12 June-13 September 2025
DESTE Foundation and the New Museum of New York, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, present the exhibition In a Bright Green Field, the third in a series of collaborations between the three institutions, with an emphasis on the work of contemporary Greek and Cypriot artists. Ioanna Limniou, The Musicians, 2024 The exhibition is part of a long-standing, constant effort by DESTE and Dakis Ioannou to promote contemporary Greek art and Greek and Cypriot artists abroad since the 1980s. Ioanna Limniou. Girl on a tree It follows The Same River Twice in ...More
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre| Common Grounds| 25-26 June 2025
On Thursday, June 26, and Friday, June 27, the Clearing of Stavros Niarchos Park at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) transforms into an open space of coexistence and creation, where cultures meet, communicate, and co-shape a common place—through traditions, narratives, arts, and sounds from different countries—at the Common Grounds festival. The festival creates a vibrant and participatory space through cultural activities, workshops and interactive experiences open to the public, presented by the participating institutions and organisations. At the heart: dialogue and co-creation. Common Grounds means common ground - but also common experience. The SNFCC ...More
Inauguration of the restoration of two bastions at the Castle of Patras
In the presence of the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni, the restored bastions of the Castle of Patras, the southwestern Venetian circular bastion and the southeastern Ottoman polygonal bastion were presented. At the ceremony of the presentation of the monument, Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni said: "The Castle of Patras is an archaeological palimpsest.Through the restoration of the two bastions, we are attributing a monument of high symbolic and historical value, which functions as a landmark for the city, as a cultural pole, but also as a development resource. It is truly worth a tour of ...More
Leave A Comment