the Stock Exchange Palace (Bucharest)

 palace, office building, Neoclassical (architecture), listed building / architectural heritage, 1912_construction, 1910s construction

The National Library of Romania is intended to be the repository of all that is published in Romania.
The building hosting the National Library was finished in 1911, when it was used as the central office of the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The facade of the building, rich in ornaments, was made by the sculptor Emil W. Becker.

This building was the venue for the Peace Conference of Bucharest in 1913, which ended the Second Balkan War. The Peace Treaty was signed in Cantacuzino Palace, in Victoria Road.
From the beginning, the Palace held a museum of commercial documents, a rich library and a painting collection. As a result of a decree in February 1949, the Stock Exchange stopped its activity. Thus, in 1953, the Stock Exchange Palace becomes the headquarters of the Central State Library, at present renamed National Library.

The bases of the National Library were put in 1859, when the oldest Romanian library opened in Bucharest – the one belonging to Sf. Sava College. At that moment, over 1000 French books were registered.
At present, the Library’s collection contains approximatively 13.000.000 bibliographical encyclopedic units and funds of special collections (bibliophily, manuscripts, historic archive, old Romanian periodicals, engravings, photographies, cartography, audio- visual).
source: www.summitbucharest.ro/en/70.html

National Library website
www.bibnat.ro/ (in Romanian)