National Library of Finland

The National Library of Finland, Kansalliskirjasto, is the oldest and most important scholarly library in the country. It was founded in 1640 at the Academy of Turku and moved with the university to Helsinki after the great Turku fire of 1827. The current main building on Senate Square was built from 1840 to 1845 by Carl Ludwig Engel in neoclassical Empire style, with a domed rotunda and colonnaded halls that shape the orderly cityscape of Senate Square. Until 2006 it was called the Helsinki University Library, then renamed the National Library and now collects the entire Finnish printed heritage. Visitors can tour the splendid reading room with its book galleries under the rotunda.