Þjóðarbókhlaðan (long form: Landsbókasafn Íslands - Háskólabókasafn) (The National and the University Library of Iceland) was established 1994 in Reykjavík, Iceland. It is by far the largest library in Iceland with about 900,000 items. It keeps most of the manuscript from the 12th - 14th centuries in which the icelandic Sagas are written.
Despite its moderate size - about 13,000 cubic meters - it took an astonishing 16 years to complete the building. The official explanation for the delay was that there simply was no budget for it - in the beginning of the 1980s, the government even introduced a much ridiculed national tax rise to complete the constructions. However, not a penny of the money collected was used for the constructions. Davíð Oddsson, former Prime Minister of Iceland, made it one of his priorities to complete the work and the building was opened in 1994.
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