Those who come to Sanremo should know that the city does not mean only hotels , restaurants and social events, but that there are also good cultural opportunities. The city has had a rich library since 1893, the year in which it was established by the administration, which was then inaugurated on January 8, 1901. Right at the foot of the Pigna , the old city, you can visit the “Francesco Corradi” Civic Library, which takes its name from the benefactor doctor, who wanted to donate his rich and personal library to the city and has been located since 1963 in an ancient nineteenth-century building , once a kindergarten. The Sanremo library can be reached along the very central Corso Matteotti , turning towards the sea into via Carli, where it is located at number 1. It has recently been modernly restructured precisely due to the importance it has acquired thanks to the intense cultural activity for adults and children it has promoted: conferences, book presentations, exhibitions and celebrations of special days are organized.
Particular attention was paid to children to develop their pleasure and interest in reading and the new room “ Antonio Rubino“, Full of well over 6000 volumes; here workshops and activities are held with children from the earliest school age. The book patrimony of the Civic Library consists of 130 thousand volumes and publications, continuously updated and increased, further enriched by a vast selection of magazines and periodicals, videotapes and cd-roms. The library also benefits from numerous and particular collections of considerable interest: an ancient collection of manuscripts and works from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries from the ancient library of the Capuchin friars, the collection “Mario Calvino and Eva Mameli Calvino”, parents of the writer Italo Calvino, who lived and worked in Sanremo as scholars and researchers. The books that constitute it are of a botanical, agronomic and floricultural nature and are over 12 thousand volumes; the mountaineering fund “Bartolomeo Asquasciati” of about 1,200 volumes. Of a literary nature, he owns the “Renzo Laurano” collection, consisting of about 4,500 volumes and a small but precious collection that belonged to the English poet Caroline Giffard Phillipson, a friend of Garibaldi. A section consisting of the author’s writings and a collection of Italian and foreign critical writings is dedicated to Italo Calvino. On botanical subjects there are also 650 volumes of the “Giacomo Nicolini” collection and 1,200 historical-local volumes of the “Giacomo Siccardi and Anna Gibelli” collection. The library in English was also recently acquired, with 5,000 volumes published between the end of the 19th century and the 80s, belonging to the angelic community of Sanremo.
The Sanremo Library named after Francesco Corradi participates in the Catalog of Ligurian Libraries promoted by the Liguria Region and its service has been computerized for years and can be consulted on the internet.
Winter opening hours: for consultation and book lending from Monday to Friday from 9 to 12 and from 15 to 18; Saturday from 9 to 12.45
Summer opening hours: (from 1 July to 15 September) from Monday to Saturday from 9 to 13; for book lending from Monday to Friday from 9 to 12.
