The Metroteka joins a wider constellation of remarkable libraries across Poland, many of which have gained international recognition for their bold architecture and inventive spirit.
In the coastal town of Rumia, a functioning railway station doubles as Stacja Kultura (Culture Station), where the waiting room has been transformed into a reading hall. Bookshelves evoke train tracks, compartments resemble carriages, and the space has won global awards for library design.
Katowice boasts the CINiBA academic library, a monumental ‘redhead’ building clad in sandstone, where geometric order and natural light combine to create a sense of calm. Meanwhile, Warsaw’s own University Library is famed for its vast roof garden – one of the largest in Europe – where visitors stroll among bridges, streams and blossoms while looking out over the city skyline. Historic collections thrive too: the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, founded in the 14th century, preserves treasures such as Copernicus manuscripts and Chopin scores, alongside millions of volumes.
Other cities across Poland have also reimagined what a library can be. Poznań’s Raczyński Library, first opened in 1829 in a neoclassical palace, now combines its historic façade with a bold seven-storey glass-and-stone extension by JEMS Architekci – tripling its size while adding workshops, a children’s library and a gallery. In Opole, the Municipal Public Library links a 19th-century townhouse to a modern wing by a slender glass fissure, its façade engraved with the poetry of Edward Stachura. The Book Gallery in Oświęcim borrows the architecture of a shopping mall: escalator-like levels, two entrances, and rainbow-reflecting ceramics enclose a 5,000-square-metre cultural hub with cinemas, cafés and children’s zones. Wrocław’s Grafit Library, meanwhile, turned an abandoned commercial project into a multimedia centre with 35,000 books, 5,000 films, 2,000 music albums and bright interiors marked by a bold red ribbon in the floor. Even small villages take part: in Lower Silesia, Czarny Bór’s timber-and-glass cultural centre doubles as a library, theatre and community hall, its pared-back concrete and brick interiors hosting everything from readings to workshops and performances.