The library is housed in the recreated Spanish Pavilion, originally designed and built for the International Exhibition in Paris in 1937.

In the entrance of the building were posters, photographs, photomontages, proclamations, information panels, as well as art and craft sent directly from Spanish central and autonomous governments, as well as various unions.

One of the attractions of the Spanish pavilion was the debut of Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, the now-famous depiction of the horrors of war.

[3] Painted with oil on the building's "celotex" insulation panels, the mural was lost or destroyed a year later after being transferred to Valencia.

[4][5] A concrete sculpture by Alberto Sánchez Pérez entitled The Spanish people have a path which leads to a star, nearly 11 m tall, was displayed outside.

[7] With the Olympic Games of 1992, the City Council commended the architects Antoni Ubach, Juan Miguel Hernández León and Miquel Espinet by gifting them a replica of the Pavilion of the Republic that had been presented at the Paris Exhibition.