Luis Ángel Arango Library

Luis Ángel Arango Library

If you are touring the heart of Bogotá, in the La Candelaria district, you can't miss this landmark where generations of Colombian readers, researchers, and intellectuals have been formed. The Luis Ángel Arango Library—the most extensive public library in the country, with a collection of over 2 million volumes—is also an important cultural hub, featuring an art gallery and a concert hall. It was awarded the National Architecture Prize in 1966 and declared a National Cultural Heritage Site in 2010. The library is named after its founder, lawyer and financier Luis Ángel Arango, who was then the general manager of the Banco de la República (Bank of the Republic). This bank founded and continues to manage the library today.

Inaugurated on February 20, 1958, this major educational and cultural center spans 45,000 square meters and is divided into two blocks. The north block houses more than 2,000 reading stations and 11 specialized rooms, including the Basic Collections Room, Map Library, Researchers Room, Newspaper Library, Science and Technology, Economics, Arts and Humanities, Legal Sciences, Languages, Audiovisuals, and Music.

In the south block, you can explore an important collection of Colombian and international art. Here you will find the Casa de la Moneda, with 11,000 pieces showcasing the numismatic history of Colombia; the Botero Museum, featuring 123 of his works along with 87 pieces by Picasso, Miró, Monet, and other global art icons. You can also visit the Bank of the Republic Art Museum, which showcases the finest in modern and emerging Colombian art. More than 5,000 people visit the Luis Ángel Arango Library every day to enjoy not only its books but also its full cultural offering, including lectures, workshops, concerts, and more.

This documentary temple also has a northern branch on Calle 80 and Carrera 8. There you can find the bibliographic collection of Colombian politician Alfonso Palacio Rudas and an exhibition of paintings by Ricardo Gómez Campuzano, one of the great figures of Colombian art of the 20th century.

If you want to explore a truly unique area in the library, something you won't find anywhere else, we recommend you dive into the Rare Books and Manuscripts Room. 46,000 unclassifiable bibliographic jewels for their rarity!

You can't miss one collection on your tour: the Incunabula, a set of 35 books produced at the dawn of printing (between 1470 and 1499), written by preachers, jurists, politicians, poets, and humanists. These volumes came from Europe and were almost all written in Latin.