In Derna, eastern Libya, a unique building is erected in its architecture, built in the Italian era, specifically in 1920 to be the seat of the Italian ruler, and the "Palace of Flowers" gained a special symbolism among the residents of the region, as it was allocated after independence within the royal palaces, to witness in 1956 the opening of the second parliamentary session, and after 8 years and a royal initiative granted to the Directorate of Education in Derna.
Just as the building of Al-Manar Palace in Benghazi in the east of the country was dedicated before it to be the nucleus of the Libyan University, at a time when the founder of modern Libya, King Idris Al-Senussi, was "an ascetic in palaces and their glamor, taking small rest houses the size of cigarette stalls as a prayer room for him on the roads between cities," as Abdelfattah Bouhoura, author of Tales of the Old and Contemporary City of the Royal Era, recounts.
Cultural coup
Bouhoura, who is interested in the history of Derna, adds that "the building with historical symbolism remained under the management of education in the region from that time until the coup of September 1969, when it was handed over to what was known as the popular leadership until it was completely neglected and dusted, until the revolution of February 17, 2011."
Bouhoura tells Al Jazeera Net about the march of the masses of revolutionaries on the building, which they considered a symbol of the Gaddafi regime in the city, causing damage to the historic building significantly, and then controlled by one of the gunmen later and took it as a private residence for his family.
But the people of Derna, as Bouhoura recalls, on a Friday and immediately after prayers, "decided to march on the building, remove its rapists and hand it over to the local council in the city, demanding that it be used for the benefit of all, and in a way that preserves the symbolism of the building and its unique architecture."
Bouhoura added that the local council, of which he was a member, received a written request to convert the building of "Qasr al-Zohour" into a library bearing the name of King Idris, to issue a decision to allocate the building and form a voluntary founding committee for it.
Imperfect reconstruction
The committee, headed by historian specialized in the history of the Senussi family Youssef Abdel Hadi and supported by charitable initiatives, no sooner had the maintenance and processing work begun until its efforts stopped for nearly 6 years, due to the security conditions suffered by the city, as Abdul Hadi confirms to Al Jazeera Net.
He added that the local council was changed after the elections and its successor stopped funding the project after spending only 10 percent of the allocated budget, which was 490,100 Libyan dinars ($<>,<>).
University library
"This building received Prince Idris al-Senussi on his first visit to Derna in 1944 when he was under the British administration, and when it was allocated to the king after independence, he donated it to develop education in the city and make it a library belonging to the sector, and this is the least duty towards the founder of Libya and one of its most important historical symbols," Abdul Hadi explained.
Although the library will not be limited to the history of the Kingdom or the King, as the name may suggest, but the aim of its establishment, as included in the founding document, is to contain all kinds of general knowledge, through a paper library, a digital library, a lecture hall and a visual presentation that will receive lecturers and schoolchildren periodically and daily, and also allocated a hall for documents and those interested in them.
Library "Royal"
The palace library documents in its content and form something of the history of Libya at the time of the Italian occupation and in the era of the monarchy, then the coup and the revolution, it is a living history in its interior and appearance.
Abdul Hadi stressed the keenness of the people to show the project properly after all these years of hard work, even if the opening, which was scheduled for this Ramadan, was delayed.
"We took into account the architectural privacy of the building during the maintenance and restoration work, and we made sure that the new accessories take the same architectural character and we preserved the garden, which is the last in the city after the vandalism and bulldozing, which Derna witnessed during the past years," he says, adding that even the dome that was added to the palace was made of aluminum to give the impression that it is emergency and not a distortion of the original building.
"Big boy"
Libyan writer al-Makki al-Mustajir describes the library as a newborn born old, expressing optimism about "cultural reconstruction in the city of Derna."
While some find it difficult to imagine that a city like Derna is devoid of any public library, Al-Mustajir said, "Those interested know the importance of public libraries in spreading awareness and cultural development, encouraging reading, making various references available in paper and electronically, embracing activities, and providing services to all segments of society, alike, through a paper library and an electronic library to compensate for the small building and the scarcity of resources on some subjects."
"Unexpected" interaction
Al-Mustajir, one of the actors in this project, confirms to Al Jazeera Net that "despite the fact that the library is not officially opened, and the preparation is not completed completely, its interaction with its surroundings began from the first moment of its establishment, it receives visitors and those interested and school trips, and embraces literary, cultural and scientific activities."
The latest event hosted by the Library was the "Local Value System" conference with the participation of 12 research papers, with multidisciplinary approaches, which the organizers assert exceeded all expectations compared to the reality of the city, which suffered the scourge of war during many years that witnessed the destruction of many of its landmarks and the displacement of a large number of its intellectuals.
Cultural Salon
This is confirmed by Professor Najib Al-Hasadi in his speech to Al Jazeera Net, and says, "I participated in the attendance at the library's first scientific conference, on historical writing in the previous era, and I noticed the weakness of most of the papers presented. However, the situation changed a lot at its second conference, on the local value system, where it was impressed by at least half of the papers presented."
"It remains to say that the presence of a cultural institution such as the King Idris I Library in Derna is important for many reasons, the most prominent of which, in my opinion, is to ignite honest competition with another cultural institution, namely the Derna House Cultural Association, especially since there is cooperation and complementarity that would enrich the cultural balance in the country," he added.