Royal Library of Belgium, National library in Mont des Arts district, Brussels, Belgium.
The Royal Library of Belgium, also known as KBR, is the national library of the country, located in the Mont des Arts district in central Brussels. It holds printed books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and drawings from Belgium and across Europe.
The institution was formally founded in 1837, but its origins go back to the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy, which took shape in the 15th century. That medieval collection became the foundation of what grew into the national library over the following centuries.
The library is nicknamed Albertine in French and Albertina in Dutch, after King Albert I, in whose memory the Mont des Arts building was erected. Since 2020 the KBR Museum has displayed the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy, including illuminated manuscripts by Flemish miniaturists such as Simon Marmion and the Master of Mary of Burgundy.
The library is open on weekdays and Saturdays, and access to the reading rooms requires a free registration in advance. The KBR Museum and temporary exhibitions can be visited without any registration.
The library's coin collection holds a 5th-century Sicilian tetradrachm, one of the most valuable coins in numismatics. The KBR also keeps 50,000 long-playing records and 9,200 microfilms among its special divisions.
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