The Menéndez Pelayo Library is located in a building designed by Leonardo Rucabado to house the personal bibliographic collections that the polygrapher Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo bequeathed to the city of Santander after his death in 1912, when the collection was closed.
The library contains one of the most important heritage collections in Spain, due to the rarity and uniqueness of its works, with approximately 45,000 printed and manuscript volumes from the 14th to the beginning of the 20th centuries. Among its works of enormous historical and heritage value are incunabula, medieval codices, or manuscripts by Quevedo, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, as well as the works and letters of Menéndez Pelayo.
At the entrance to the main façade of the library, which was inaugurated by Alfonso XIII on 23 August 1923, we find a seated statue of Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, made in Carrara marble by Mariano Benlliure, while at the rear entrance we find the garden of his brother Enrique, which gives access to what was the Menéndez Pelayo family home. The building currently houses the House-Museum, where you can see the dining room, living room, Enrique Menéndez Pelayo's office and the room in which Don Marcelino died, as well as the headquarters of the Gerardo Diego Foundation.
The library is currently closed for refurbishment of the facilities.