National library of Greece is the largest library of Greece, in the famous neoclassical Athenian trilogy together with the Athens University of Kapodistrias and the Academy of Athens. The building designed by the famous Danish architect Theophil von Hansen under the direction of architect Ernst Ziller. The library is located near the centre of Athens, between the streets of Panepistimiou and Akadimias.

The idea of creating a library belonged to Jacob Meyer (Swiss filelen, participated in the Liberation war of Greece). The idea was approved by the Greek government led by John Kapodistrias. The library was founded in 1829 and headed Greek historian and philologist Andreas Mystacidium. At the end of 1830 the library's collection there were already over a thousand printed books.

The congregation grew quickly, and the library was repeatedly moved, and in 1842 he United with the library of the University of Athens and was housed in its new building. Then the collection has grown to 15,000 volumes. In 1866 a Royal Charter both libraries have joined officially to the National library of Greece. In March of 1888 began the building of the library of marble in the neoclassical style. The building consists of three separate parts, two of them is a reading room with an impressive glass ceiling. Bookshelves made of cast iron, which is not typical for the buildings of that time.

Today the library has thousands of books in all languages of the world. Also a rich collection of ancient manuscripts, a variety of historical documents from the archives of the Greek revolution, various periodicals and other printed publications. The Museum has a collection of books and microfilm 149 incunabula (the largest collection of incunabula in Greece). The main problems of the National library of today is the lack of space, staff and a very limited budget.