Polish Library in Paris

About

The Polish Library of Paris (Biblioteka Polska w Paryюu), created in 1838 by Polish refugees in France following the failure of the insurrection of 1830-1831, has been a major symbolic site of the Polish Great Emigration since the 19th century and has since then remained an important Polish cultural institution abroad. It is located on Île Saint-Louis, in the building that also houses the Adam Mickiewicz Museum, the Biegas Museum and the Frédéric Chopin Lounge. In 2013, the Polish Library of Paris, the Polish Historical and Literary Society (SHLP) and the Adam Mickiewicz Museum were registered in the UNESCO International Register of the World.

The insurrection of the Kingdom of Poland against Russian domination, which began on November 29, 1830, ended in September 1831 with the Russian army taking Warsaw. This defeat led several thousand Poles to choose exile, largely in France: it was the beginning of the Great Emigration. As the authorities hit the cultural institutions in Poland very hard (close of Warsaw University...