The Biblioteca Nacional, on the slope above the National Pantheon, holds the largest library collection in the country — more than six million books and manuscripts. The building was designed in the 1970s by Tomás Sandoval as a stepped concrete terrace climbing the hillside; from inside, the reading rooms look back down over the colonial centre.
The collection includes the Bolívar archive — Bolívar's letters, military orders, and personal papers — which is one of the most important Independence-era manuscript collections in the Americas. Researchers can request access in advance. For casual visitors the architecture and the rooftop view are the main draws; the rotating exhibitions in the ground-floor gallery vary in quality.