Bitcoin Magazine
Bukele’s Futuristic BINAES Library Blends Books, Bitcoin, and Family Play in Revitalized Capital
Located in the heart of the country’s capital, El Salvador’s BINAES library stands tall as a monument to the love of knowledge, literature, and technology—accessible to the public 24 hours a day, for free. Positioned directly in front of and carefully aligned with the Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador, BINAES is also surrounded by the Palacio Nacional de El Salvador (to its left/side) and the Jardín Centroamérica, all symbols and reminders of a dream. The dream of a society that elevates beauty, the love of knowledge and faith, and shares them with the world.
Having traveled to many countries and cities in my lifetime, I have to say that the safety, tranquility and cleanliness of this area of San Salvador was remarkable. An unignorable contrast to the city squares of many western capitals, often unsafe, filled with garbage, and host to the homeless and drug addicted. Instead, both outside the library, in the gardens and walkable roads of the city square, as well as inside the library, palace and gardens, children and their families can be seen at peace, running around, enjoying this national treasure.
Donated to El Salvador by the Chinese government, BINAES is 7 stories tall with a wide range of amenities, including a cafeteria on the first floor and an Italian restaurant on the 7th. Plenty of room to host events of various sizes, public and private. BINAES stands out with an elegant futurist design, congruent with its facilities and a vision for the future of El Salvador, which also prominently features Bitcoin technology and educational materials.
With a strong focus on supporting families and the next generation, the second floor is a young children’s playground filled with educational tools, books and physical entertainment options for children to unleash their energy. The third floor has a large section dedicated to LEGOs, a powerful educational tool known to stimulate a love of building in children, with multiple tables where parents sit with their kids and play. It also hosts children’s video games, such as collaborative and family-friendly games like Mario Party and the legendary Minecraft.
The fourth floor is aimed at children 8-12 as well as fans of fantasy and fiction, with dedicated Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter areas, as well as hundreds of manga books featuring some of the greatest stories of the Japanese genre. Many of these areas include collection grade legos and merchandise from the films, as well as, of course, full libraries of books for each fictional universe.
The fifth floor is home to literature, history and books for adults, considered the core of the library, with thousands of books on all major genres of knowledge. Among them, a vast section on social sciences, which includes economics, hosting some samples of libert
