Of all the visits we did for Open House weekend, this was the one we were looking forward to the most.

After having seen the recent exhibition about architect Henri Labrouste at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, we really wanted to experience for ourselves his audacious masterpiece – the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, just two steps away from the Hôtel du Panthéon et l’Hôtel des Grands Hommes.

We were not disappointed. Check out our photos…

As soon as you enter the building, the scene is set. The entrance is filled with sculpted busts of learned men, and deliberately doesn’t show you the main room immediately. Before going upstairs, we were able to see the cabinet de curiosités and the head librarian’s office.Then it was time to hit the stairs (with their date of installation engraved in marble), with their high ceiling and a bust of the architect overlooking his masterpiece for all time.And finally we were able to enter the main reading room – magnificent, crazy, a triumph of architecture and bathed in light. It’s an impressive structure, even by today’s standards.To check out all our photos of the Sainte-Geneviève Library, click the play button below, then click the four little arrows bottom right to go into fullscreen mode.

Official website for the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève: www-bsg.univ-paris1.fr

Facebook: here

Twitter: twitter.com/biustegenevieve

Bonus! A beautifully-filmed short documentary (26 minutes) about the library