The Biblioteca Nacional de El Salvador (BINAES), a magnificent seven-story structure, stands proudly in the heart of San Salvador, epitomizing a profound commitment to knowledge, literature, and technology. This public library offers free 24-hour access, symbolizing a society that values beauty, learning, and faith. Its strategic location directly opposite the Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador, and flanked by the Palacio Nacional and Jardín Centroamérica, creates a serene and historically rich city square. The area surrounding BINAES is remarkably safe, tranquil, and clean, providing a stark contrast to many Western capitals and allowing children and their families to enjoy this national treasure in peace.

Donated by the Chinese government, BINAES boasts an elegant futurist design that harmonizes with El Salvador's vision for the future, notably incorporating Bitcoin technology and educational resources. Beyond its architectural grandeur, the library offers diverse amenities, including a cafeteria on the first floor and an Italian restaurant on the seventh, alongside ample room to host events of various sizes, public and private.

Each floor of BINAES is meticulously designed to cater to various age groups and interests. The second floor is a vibrant playground for young children, equipped with educational tools, books, and physical entertainment options. Ascending to the third floor, visitors discover a large section dedicated to LEGOs, promoting building skills, alongside children’s video games such as collaborative and family-friendly games like Mario Party and Minecraft, fostering engaging play. The fourth floor targets children aged 8-12 and enthusiasts of fantasy and fiction, featuring dedicated areas for Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, complete with extensive book collections, collection-grade LEGOs, and merchandise from the films. This floor also houses hundreds of manga books from the Japanese genre.

The fifth floor serves as the core of the library for adults, housing thousands of books across all major genres of knowledge, including literature and history. A significant section is devoted to social sciences and economics, notably featuring works by libertarian Austrian economists like Mises, Milton Friedman, Rothbard, and Ayn Rand. While the library initially received criticism for a perceived lack of libertarian economic theory works, the collection has since expanded, though it could still improve, for instance, by including Rand's fictional works. The library actively welcomes book donations, with staff contactable via email at [email protected] for contributions.

The sixth floor is the high-tech hub, immediately showcasing a Bitcoin-shaped bookshelf upon exiting the elevators, filled with literature on Bitcoin's economics, software architecture, and history of money, among many other topics. This specific installation is part of the "Bitcoin Book Shelf" initiative by Alejandra Guajardo (Miss Bitcoin), the Salvadorian model who represented the nation in the Miss Universe pageant of 2022, aiming to establish similar installations globally. Centrally located on this same floor is a beautiful Bitcoin lounge area, adorned with another Bitcoin-shaped bookshelf and various "Little Hodlers" plushies led by artist and Bitcoin evangelist Lina Seiche. A massive screen displays Mempool.space, a popular Bitcoin block explorer, offering live network data and statistics. This floor also provides 3D printers, tools for robotics work, interactive digital screen-style whiteboards, a full gaming area with top-of-the-line gaming consoles, a virtual reality area, public computers for research, and access to a digital collection of over 9 million books. Various dedicated office-like environments are also available for students and teams to get work done.

Finally, the seventh floor hosts an art gallery, which during a recent visit, exhibited pieces illustrating the history of El Salvador through the architecture of iconic locations in the area. In the center of this art hall, between the gallery and the Basílico Italian Bistro, photographs of President Bukele and First Lady Gabriela Bukele are strategically placed, aligning perfectly with the Metropolitan Cathedral across the square, symbolizing a harmonious blend of classic arts and faith. Despite the modern Chinese design of the library presenting a slight contrast to the classical Roman architecture of the surrounding area, BINAES is poised to become a visionary and enduring legacy of the self-described Philosopher King and his administration, reflecting a future-forward El Salvador.