Senate Library

The Senate Library dates back to 1834, when the institution’s head offices were located in the former Doña María de Aragón Convent built in the 16th century, today the Senate Building. Back then, the library’s reading room was located in one of the courtyards of this former convent’s cloisters. In 1882, it was reconstructed in wrought iron in the style of English Gothic Revival architecture, at the hands of the architect Emilio Rodríguez Ayuso, whose design took inspiration from the façade of the British Houses of Parliament, built forty years previous. The Senate Library is specialised in subject areas concerning parliamentary activity, and is home to two collections with more than 307,000 volumes; the historical collection houses documents corresponding to the first Bicameral Period (1834–1923) and the current collection to the second Bicameral Period (from 1977 to the present day).

+info: https://www.senado.es/opacweb/AYUDAS/descr_bib_Senado.html