Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo
Library bequeathed to Santander by Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, with the scholar's family house converted into a house museum.
Have only individual sections read aloud
About the museum
Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, a great scholar of the humanities, bequeathed in his will his personal library and the building with a garden that housed the Santander City Council, which accepted the bequest on 29 May 1912. He also stipulated that after his death, which occurred that same year, no new holdings should be added, so the collection reflects his research interests in the humanities, bibliography and historical and literary thought.
To prepare the library before opening it to the public, the City Council commissioned the architect Leonardo Rucabado, who respected the original perimeter and layout as well as the scholar's austere study. The building, in a historicist style in the montañés version with Baroque, Herrerian and Renaissance influences, opened in 1923. In front of the main façade, with its double staircase and the city coat of arms, a seated statue of Menéndez Pelayo by Mariano Benlliure was placed. The three-aisled reading room is lit from above by a large stained-glass window.
Opposite the building stands the family house, built in 1876, which operates as a house museum with the dining room, the drawing room, the study of his brother Enrique and the room in which the scholar died. The complex, including the library, was declared a national historic-artistic monument in 1982, and it also houses the headquarters of the Fundación Gerardo Diego, created in 2005. The collections comprise tens of thousands of printed volumes and manuscripts, among them incunabula and medieval codices.
Highlights
- Personal library of Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, bequeathed to Santander
- Historicist building by Leonardo Rucabado, opened in 1923
- Seated statue of Menéndez Pelayo by Mariano Benlliure
- House museum with the scholar's study and bedroom
- Incunabula and medieval codices among the collections
Permanent exhibition
- Casa-Museo de Menéndez Pelayo – The scholar's family house, built in 1876, with the dining room, the drawing room, the study of his brother Enrique and the room where Marcelino died; the garden has busts of people connected with him.
- Founded
- 1923
- Operated by
- Ayuntamiento de Santander
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