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Mon-Sat 10am-7pm; free; www.kb.dk . Bus #8. The basin in which ships used to dock while being provisioned at the Tøjhus and Proviantgarden was filled in during the 1860s and is now the site of the tranquil Royal Library Garden - the mooring rings in its northern walls are the only reminder of its past incarnation. The gardens are an excellent venue for a picnic, with a fishpond and assorted statues, including one of a lovesick Søren Kirkegaard looking over to where his fiancee, Regine Olsen, used to live. At the far end of the gardens is the old entrance to the Royal Library (Det Kongelige Bibliotek), a Venetian-inspired building of 1906 with large, curved windows and slim pillars. (You can't actually get in this entrance now - walk around the library to the waterfront to reach the new entrance.) Reflected in the waters of the Inderhavn is the elegantly tilted black-glass library extension known as the Black Diamond (Sorte Diamant), jutting out into the harbour and connected to the original library building by a walkway above the road. The extension has doubled the library's capacity and added a concert hall, exhibition and conference rooms, a cafe and an expensive restaurant (the only one on Slotsholmen). The library contains manuscripts by Hans Christian Andersen, Karen Blixen and Søren Kierkegaard, though to see them you'll have to convince those at reception that you're a bona fide scholar - a student card should suffice. Exhibitions and concerts are open to the general public (prices vary according to what's on). The Black Diamond also houses the fascinating National Photo Museum , with more than 25,000 Danish and foreign photos from 1839 to the present - selected photos are displayed in the museum's changing exhibitions (free).
The ground floor of the Black Diamond has free-to-use PCs with Internet access, a cafe with a selection of foreign newspapers and a peaceful waterfront view.
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