Liberiet Lund

"During the medieval time, the south vestry in the Lund Cathedral was used as library, which was possible while it only contained of a few volumes, due to the costly parchment on which the hand-made scripts were written. But, when book-printing become more common and books were printed on paper in cheaper and more handy volumes, the Chapters holding of books increased rapidly. During the second part of the 15th century, it was decided to build an independent library building outside the cathedral. This was the building which today is called Liberiet. The building is mentioned the first time in a source from 1499, when the archbishop Birger Gunnersen give his permission to capture 60 of charcoal in the cellar of this library building.

Nothing is left from the original furnishing, but there was probably lengthwise desks or shelves, and many of the oldest book in the Chapters collection shows signs from chains, which indicate that they probably were chained in an iron stick in the upper part of the desk. A latter description, by the priest Mogens Madsen, there were books at many different languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, written by the most distinguished authors, and all the students had fully access to the books. Most common was literature about theology, but also literature about justice, which shows that the Chapter also functioned as a legally centre, where both the canonic and profane justice were studied and construed.

During the 16th century, the number of books increased massively, but the library had an abrupt ending when the Danish king Christian III decided to move all valuable books to Copenhagen university library in 1537. The remaining books were transferred to Lund university in 1671. In 1687, a register was constituted, withholding the books that still was in the ownership of the Chapter, which was 13 handmade scripts and 386 printed books. 25 of them were so called incunables, which means books printed in the beginning of the book printing era, from 1450 until 1500. The most of this invaluable collection is nowadays located at the Lund university library. The books that was brought to Copenhagen was unfortunately burned when the Vetus Bibliotheca burned in 1728.

When the Lund university was opened in 1668, the philosophic faculty used the house Liberiet as an auditorium, and long time thereafter the building was called The Old Academy. In 1766 the top floor was used for fencing, and became the place where Per Henrik Ling, the father of physical education in Sweden, was teaching his students. The faculty of Medicine used the chapel of Sanct Dionysii as auditorium, which was situated in the east part of the Lund Cathedral. The faculty was moved to Liberiet in 1768.

Later on, minor restorations of Liberiet have been made, and from 1720s until 1890 the bottom floor was used as a private cellar and thereafter the cathedral used it as boiler room. Between 1966 and 1979, the building was empty, and after a restoration 2015-2016, the Cathedral uses it for their pilgrim activities.

In the south corner, a white crack is visible in the wall of the Liberiet building, it originates from the wall that during medieval time connected to the building, when the Cathedral area was surrounded in the medieval archbishop’s tower."

Jonny och Ann-Christine Andersson

"This red brick building sits in a nice spot between the cathedral and a few bars. Separating the two world's and providing a nice backdrop for people watching."

Viktor Erik Jensen

"The old library of Lund's old cathedral."

D Henrick