The Biblioteca Pública Jovellanos has occupied the former Banco de España building, renovated for this purpose, in central Gijón since 1991. Its collection runs to around 200,000 documents, some 80,000 of them on open shelves, and it also offers a daily press and magazine room, with Wi-Fi throughout the building.

Its heritage holdings include a set of works published before 1900, as well as a large part of the library of the Ateneo Obrero de Gijón and the Biblioteca Asturiana del Padre Patac, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2012.

The building was also home to the old Teatro Jovellanos, where Gijón’s first film screening took place on 12 August 1896, an event recalled by a plaque at the entrance.