Cathedrals of Culture: The National Library of Russia

Since its inauguration in 1814, the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, designed by Yegor Sokolov, has seen more than its fair share of tumultuous national history. Its walls guard a kingdom of thoughts that go back even further, tenderly maintained by the library's largely female staff. Their echoing heels punctuate the silence in the library's increasingly empty rooms. In Michael Glawogger's "The National Library of Russia", the library speaks through chosen excerpts of its finest literature. Beyond the library's walls lies a world that has grown increasingly reliant on invisible clouds of data to store our knowledge, and libraries, bookstores, and bookshelves are evaporating. The National Library of Russia is a reminder of the ephemeral beauty of books, their shelters, and their human protectors.