World's Most Beautiful Libraries
Temples of books, from Baroque halls to glass cathedrals. 25 places, mapped and ready to build a trip around.
Plan a trip on Trailwind →Trinity College Library (Long Room)
Dublin, IrelandBestMay–SepClimate39–66°FCurrencyEURLanguageEnglishAirportDUBA 65-metre barrel-vaulted hall of dark oak, marble busts and 200,000 antique books, home to the Book of Kells.
Library of Congress
Washington, DCBestVariesClimate30–90°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportDCAThe Thomas Jefferson Building's Great Hall is a gilded Beaux-Arts cathedral to knowledge, the largest library on earth.
Strahov Monastery Library
Prague, CzechiaBestMay, Jun, SepClimate30–79°FCurrencyCZKLanguageCzechAirportPRGBaroque Theological and Philosophical halls with frescoed ceilings and globes, a jewel above Prague.
Biblioteca Joanina
Coimbra, PortugalBestVariesClimate43–86°FCurrencyEURLanguagePortugueseAirportOPOA gilded 18th-century Baroque library where a colony of bats protects the books by eating insects at night.
Admont Abbey Library
Styria, AustriaBestJun–SepClimate27–77°FCurrencyEURLanguageGermanAirportGRZThe world's largest monastic library, a white-and-gold Baroque hall under seven frescoed cupolas.
New York Public Library (Rose Main Reading Room)
New YorkBestVariesClimate28–86°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportNYCA block-long, chandeliered reading room with a painted-cloud ceiling behind the marble lions of Fifth Avenue.
George Peabody Library
MarylandBestVariesClimate30–88°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportBWIA five-tier atrium of black-and-gilt cast-iron balconies rising to a skylight, the "cathedral of books" in Baltimore.
Stuttgart City Library
Baden-Wurttemberg, GermanyBestVariesClimate32–77°FCurrencyEURLanguageGermanAirportSTRA minimalist all-white cube with a hypnotic inverted-pyramid reading atrium, a modern icon.
Tianjin Binhai Library
Tianjin, ChinaBestVariesClimate21–86°FCurrencyCNYLanguageMandarin ChineseAirportTSNUndulating floor-to-ceiling terraced shelves swirl around a giant luminous sphere, "The Eye".
Bodleian Library
Oxford, United KingdomBestVariesClimate36–72°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishAirportLONOxford's 15th-century library with the medieval Duke Humfrey's reading room and the domed Radcliffe Camera.
Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilBestVariesClimate64–84°FCurrencyBRLLanguagePortugueseAirportGIGA Neo-Manueline reading room where carved dark wood soars to a red-white-and-blue stained-glass skylight.
Klementinum Library
Prague, CzechiaBestMay, Jun, SepClimate30–79°FCurrencyCZKLanguageCzechAirportPRGA 1720s Baroque hall of ceiling frescoes, antique globes and gilded balconies in Prague's old town.
Biblioteca Vasconcelos
Mexico City, MexicoBestVariesClimate45–82°FCurrencyMXNLanguageSpanishAirportMEXA vast "megalibrary" of suspended glass-and-steel stacks around a whale skeleton, seemingly floating.
Beinecke Rare Book Library
ConnecticutBestVariesClimate27–82°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportNYCWindowless marble panels glow amber over a glass tower of rare books at Yale, a Modernist reliquary.
Austrian National Library (State Hall)
Vienna, AustriaBestVariesClimate30–82°FCurrencyEURLanguageGermanAirportVIEA 1720s Baroque Prunksaal, 80 metres of walnut shelves, frescoed dome and Venetian globes.
Seattle Central Library
WashingtonBestJun–SepClimate37–77°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportSEARem Koolhaas's faceted glass-and-steel origami with a spiralling "book ramp" of the entire collection.
Kanazawa Umimirai Library
Ishikawa, JapanBestVariesClimate34–88°FCurrencyJPYLanguageJapaneseAirportKMQA luminous white "cake box" punched with 6,000 small windows that flood the reading hall with soft light.
El Escorial Library
Madrid, SpainBestVariesClimate34–88°FCurrencyEURLanguageSpanishAirportMADA 54-metre Renaissance hall with a barrel vault of allegorical frescoes and shelves facing spine-inward.
Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve
Paris, FranceBestVariesClimate36–77°FCurrencyEURLanguageFrenchAirportCDGLabrouste's pioneering 1850 iron-and-glass reading room, a slender skeleton of arches and light.
Wiblingen Abbey Library
Baden-Wurttemberg, GermanyBestVariesClimate28–75°FCurrencyEURLanguageGermanAirportSTRA Rococo hall of pink-and-blue columns, gold flourishes and a ceiling fresco near Ulm.
Boston Public Library (Bates Hall)
MassachusettsBestVariesClimate23–84°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportBOSA 218-foot barrel-vaulted reading room with green lamps and arched windows, America's first grand public library.
State Library of Victoria (La Trobe Reading Room)
Victoria, AustraliaBestVariesClimate43–79°FCurrencyAUDLanguageEnglishAirportMELA soaring octagonal domed reading room, six storeys of galleries beneath a 34-metre glass oculus.
Stockholm Public Library
Stockholm, SwedenBestJun–AugClimate27–72°FCurrencySEKLanguageSwedishAirportARNAsplund's 1928 rotunda, a perfect drum of curved shelves rising in tiers to a bright cylinder.
Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen
St. Gallen, SwitzerlandBestVariesClimate27–73°FCurrencyCHFLanguageGermanAirportZRHA Rococo masterpiece of inlaid wood and frescoes, a UNESCO abbey library dating to the 8th century.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
EgyptBestVariesCurrencyEGPLanguageArabicA disc of granite and glass on the Alexandria waterfront, built near the site of the ancient library it commemorates. The main reading room slopes over eleven cascading levels under a sky-lit roof.