Biblioteca Central de la Universidad de Oviedo

The Biblioteca Central of the University of Oviedo occupies the upper cloister of the university’s historic building, in the heart of the city. It has two reading rooms, the General and the Asturias room, and keeps a broad collection of works by Asturian authors or about Asturias, with more than 10,000 titles.

Its old book collection includes more than 600 manuscripts, 23 incunabula and over a thousand sixteenth-century books. The university that houses it grew out of the will of Archbishop Fernando Valdés Salas and was officially inaugurated in 1608; the design of its building is attributed to the architects Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and Juan del Ribero Rada. Its large arcaded cloister courtyard is presided over by a statue of the founder.