Biblioteca Palafoxiana

The Biblioteca Palafoxiana in Puebla is a single long vaulted hall lined from floor to ceiling with three tiers of carved wooden bookcases, holding tens of thousands of old volumes in their original setting. Founded in 1646, it is regarded as the first public library in the Americas, and in 2005 UNESCO entered it in its Memory of the World Register.

Its founder was Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, bishop of Puebla, a passionate reader. On 6 September 1646 he gave his personal library of some 5,000 volumes to the Colegio de San Juan, a seminary he had founded, on one condition: that it be open not only to clergy and students but to anyone who wished to study. More than a century later Bishop Francisco Fabián y Fuero had the present hall built, completed in 1773 on the upper floor of the old college. It is about 43 metres long and covered by a vault, and the first two levels of shelving were made by colonial cabinetmakers in ayacahuite pine, polocote and cedar; a third level was added in the mid-19th century as the collections grew. Fabián y Fuero gave his own books, and the library later absorbed the collections of other bishops and clergy, of Puebla's religious colleges and of the Jesuits after their expulsion in 1767. The hall also holds a delicate altarpiece framing a painting of the Madonna of Trapani, thought to have been modelled on the Sicilian sculpture by Nino Pisano.

The collection numbers more than 40,000 books and manuscripts from the 15th to the 20th century, including nine incunabula, the oldest being the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. Bibles, canon law, theology and the writings of the Church Fathers sit beside history, natural history, the humanities and geography, a breadth that reflects the universal interests of a founder educated at Huesca, Alcalá and Salamanca. Two earthquakes in 1999 damaged the building and its shelving, and restoration began in 2001.

Puebla, founded by the Spanish in the 16th century between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz, has a historic centre of churches and tiled façades that is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List; the library lies at its heart.

Getting there

The library is in the historic centre of Puebla, about 1 km from the city centre. Hermanos Serdán International Airport (PBC) is about 22 km away.