With the contractor due to hand over the newly renovated building on Tallinn's Narva Maantee to the Estonian National Library on September 1, will be closed from September 11 and the collections moved to the Tõnismäe building.

The library will not become fully operational until May 2027. Due to the delay in financing the refurbishment of the building, that issue will have to be addressed over the next two years.

While not yet completely finished, a tour of the building on Thursday provided a glimpse of what the library will eventually become.

In the foyer for, instance, interior architect Ville Lausmäe's team has designed an "internal street," which, like a park, is a public space where there is no obligation to buy anything. The formerly black ceiling of the foyer has also been painted white, with the consent of the heritage preservation authorities, to brighten up the dark and gloomy space.

"National libraries in other parts of the world that have been built from scratch don't have what we have here," said Lausmäe.

Discussing the preservation of certain Soviet-era elements, Lausmäe explained that he was not sure whether they could rightfully be called Soviet-era at all, because they were made by Estonian people for Estonian people.

When the renovation of the Estonian National Library was first planned, a total of €53.2 million as earmarked for the project in the 2022-2025 budget strategy. However, the construction of the building has steadily increased since then, with the cost, including fittings and fixtures, having now reached €106 million.

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