KORAIS LIBRARY

The Koraes Library is one of the biggest libraries in Greece. Founded in 1792, it was originally an annex to the Great School of Chios. The latter currently houses the 1st Middle School of Chios. The library’s first collection was built around the books that belonged to Koraes and his friends, namely Greek intellectuals from abroad.
The history of our library is divided into three periods:
The first period, which extends from 1972 to 1822
The second period, which extends from 1822 to 1881 uring this period, progressive repatriation of the Greeks from Chios living abroad and the financial support of the Greeks of the diaspora resulted in rebuilding the educational system and in creating new schools. Once again Koraes remained a vital catalyst in enriching the library’s collection, since he bequeathed to the library his personal book collection. Numerous donations from other eminent personalities originating from Chios, such as Ioannis Andreadis, a wealthy merchant from Trieste, who donated 4,300 volumes, resulted in the collection outgrowing the building’s capacity. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to build a new edifice to house the library’s “priceless treasure, the only thing our poor country can be proud of”, to use the expression of the library’s trustees. In 1870, the new library found a new home, an impressive building built east of Chios’ historic middle school. The construction was made possible thanks to the love for the country and the arts of the Greeks from Chios living abroad.
The building’s façade was decorated with the sphinx, a symbol used in Chios’ ancient coins, and a plaque where the names of the trustees and the date of construction were engraved. The plaque was created by sculptor Ant. Frangoulis. Nikolaos Politis was entrusted with cataloguing close to 11,000 volumes. Unfortunately, the newly erected building, a true labour of work and sacrifices, would not live long. As a result of the horrendous and devastating 1881 earthquake, the building was severely damaged and had to be demolished. Fortunately, none of its priceless books was lost, although they all fell of their racks and were scattered.
The third period, which extends from 1881 to the present day