The Latvian Ambassador’s visit to the National Library

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Jurijs Pogrebņaks, Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia in Budapest and his deputy, Maija Bišofa paid an official visit to the National Széchényi Library on 2nd April 2025.

The guests were welcomed by Dávid Rózsa, Director General, Judit Gerencsér, Deputy Director General, and Zoltán Lewalt-Jezierski, Head of the Director General’s Cabinet. During the discussions, the delegation received a detailed overview of the more than two-hundred-year-long history of the national library, circumstances of its founding, as well as the library's mission in preserving and enriching cultural heritage. The meeting also identified potential areas for future cooperation, particularly in establishing relations with the National Library of Latvia, organizing joint exhibitions and events, and professional collaboration in areas such as digitalisation, technology, collection management, and preservation.

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Jurijs Pogrebņaks highlighted the significance of this year’s cultural-historical anniversary: the first book in Latvian was published in Wittenberg exactly 500 years ago in 1525. To commemorate the occasion, he presented our library with a facsimile edition and companion volume of another work of great significance, Terra Mariana. 1186–1888, which illustrates the history of Christianity in Latvia and Estonia. In return, Director General Dávid Rózsa gifted a deluxe facsimile edition of the Chronica Hungarorum (Budai Krónika), the first book printed in Hungary.

In the second part of the visit, Gergő Kovács, a staff member of the Library of Book History, Library and Information Science, led the delegation on a guided tour around the building. The guests were introduced to the history of the library, its main event venues, gained insight into its collections, and visited the permanent exhibition, the reading rooms and other impressive rooms.

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