Everyone has some kind of place that makes them feel transported to a magical realm. For some people it’s castles with their noble history and crumbling towers. For others it’s abandoned factories, ivy choked, a sense of foreboding around every corner. For us here at Curious Expeditions, there has always been something about libraries. Row after row, shelf after shelf, there is nothing more magical than a beautiful old library.

We had a chance to see just such a library on our recent visit to Prague. Tucked away on the top of a hill in Prague is the Strahov Monestary, the second oldest monastery in Prague. Inside, divided into two major halls, is a breathtaking library. The amazing Theological Hall contains 18,000 religious texts, and the grand Philosophical Hall has over 42,000 ancient philosophical texts. Both are stunningly gorgeous. Strahov also contains a beautiful cabinet of curiosities, including bits of a Dodo bird, a large 18th century electrostatic device, numerous wonderfully old ocean specimens, and for unclear reasons many glass cases full of waxen fruit. Our delight was manifest.

Shocked into a library induced euphoria, Curious Expeditions has attempted to gather together the world’s most beautiful libraries for you starting with our own pictures of Strahov. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.



Strahov Theological Hall - Original Baroque Cabinet







Strahov Theological Hall; Statue of John the Evangelist Holding a Book









Strahov Philosophical Hall

We have compiled a vast compendium of beautiful library pictures after the jump. (Now updated with reader suggestions.)



Abbey Library St. Gallen, Switzerland



Angelica Library, Rome, Italy

Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel, Germany



Beatus Rhenanus Library, Basel, Switzerland



Bernadotte Library, Stockholm Sweden



Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, Italy



Biblioteca Di Bella Arti, Milan, Italy



Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I, Lisbon Coast, Portugal



Biblioteca do Palàcio Nacional da Ajuda Lisboa III, Lisbon, Portugal



Biblioteca Geral University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal



Biblioteca Palafoxiana, Puebla, Mexico



Bibliotecha de la Real Academia De La Lengua, Madrid, Spain



Bibliotheque Alencon, Normandy, France



Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Paris, France



Duke of Humphrey’s Library, Bodleian, Oxford University, England



Boston Copley Public Library, Boston, USA



Old British Reading Room, British Museum, London, England



Casanatense Library, Rome, Italy



Cathedral Library, Kalocsa, Hungary



Chetham’s Library, Manchester, UK



Dutch Royal Archives Library, Netherlands



El Escorial Library, San Lorenzo, Spain



Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA



George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA



Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag, the Hague, Netherlands



Hereford Cathedral Chained Library, Hereford, England (Rare books were once kept chained to the bookshelf to prevent stealing.)



Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek Weimar II, Germany



Joanina LIbrary University of Coimbra, Portugal



Kremsmuenster Abbey Library, Kremsmünster, Upper Austria.



Biblioteca Castilla La Mancha, Spain



Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA



Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada



Library of St. Walburga, Zutphen, Netherland (Preserved from the 16th century)



Library of the Benedictine Monastery of Admont, Austria



Library of the National Palace of Mafra, Portugal



Library of the Prussian King Frederic the Second in Potsdam, Germany



Melk Monastery Library, Melk, Austria



National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London



North Reading Room, UC Berkeley, California, USA (Terrific reader suggestion)



New York Public Library, New York, USA



Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, Belgium



Queen’s College Library Oxford



Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Possibly the most beautiful library of them all.)



Rennie Mackintosh Library, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland (Added on excellent reader suggestion.)



Riggs Library, Georgetown University, USA



Rijkmuseum Library, Amsterdam



Riksdagen Library, Swedish Parliament Library, Stockholm, Sweden



Russian National Library, St. Petersburg



St. Florian Monastery-Library, Austria



Salamanca Library, Salamanca, Spain



Sansovino Library, Rome, Italy



Sorbonne Library, Paris, France



State Library, Victoria, Australia



Stiftsbibliothek Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg, Austria



Suzzallo Library, Seattle, Washington, USA



The New Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh



Theology Room at St. Deiniol’s library, North Wales



Trinity College LIbrary, AKA, The Long Room, Dublin, Ireland



University-Library, Helsinki, Finland



Vatican Library, Vatican City, Rome



Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria



Waldsassen Abbey Library, Bavaria, Germany



Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, England



Yale, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

At the end of this post we at Curious Expeditions asked for beautiful libraries we had overlooked. Turns out, there were a lot. In fact, more then we will ever be able to post. But in the spirit of the compendium below we have put up some of our favorites from the reader suggested libraries. Thanks to everyone who suggested a library, it’s fantastic to see that we aren’t the only ones with a bad case of librophila. (We also apologize to anyone who suffers a scrolling related injury.)



Amelia S. Givin Library, Mount Holly Springs, PA



Bad Schussenried Bibliothekssaal, Baden-Württemberg, Germany



Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy



Bibliothèque Solvay, Brussels, Belgium



Boston Athenæum, Boston, MA, USA



Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford, England



Cornell Law School Library, Ithaca, NY, USA



Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., USA



George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore House Library, Asheville, N.C., USA



Harper Library, The University of Chicago, IL, USA



John Rylands Library, Manchester, England (Thanks to Edward Brownrigg and John Rylands)



Klementium Library, Prague, Czech Republic



Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales



National Library of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland



Old Chicago Public Library (Current Cultural Center), Chicago, IL, USA



Pierpont Morgan Library, NY, NY, USA



Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany (The reading room pictured is entirely underground, the ceiling being level with the grass.)



Sterling Memorial Library, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (The rest of Sterling Library is incredible, but I particularly enjoy that wonderful library specialty, the card catalog)



The Grolier Club Library, NY, NY, USA



Law Library, Iowa State Legislature, IA, USA



The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Northeast Vermont, USA



Thomas Crane Library, Quincy MA, USA



Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto, Canada



University of Michigan (Old) Law Library, MI, USA



Widener Library, Harvard. Cambridge, MA, USA



Wiblingen Monestary Library, Ulm, Germany

While there were a number of amazing modern libraries suggested, such as the Phillips Exeter Academy Library, the new Seattle Public Library, the leafy Washoe County Library in Reno and the astounding looking Biblioteca Vasconcelos in Mexico, we leave it up to someone else to assemble a beautiful modern libraries compendium.

For those of you still in the grip of Librophilia, if that’s possible, you can have a more immersive experience at the panoramas of the Handelingenkamer and Waldassen libraries, as well as watch a lovely video of the Bernadotte Library. One can find more Strahov pictures at the Curious Expeditions flickr account, and many other library pictures at the Flickr “Libraries and Librarians” group.

If all this library leering has made you long to hold a book in your hands, then let us suggest “Libraries” by the outstanding photographer Candida Höfer. A number of the more beautiful pictures in this set are by Ms. Höfer. For those looking for a gorgeous library closer to home, look no farther then “Libraries We Love” a book and blog dedicated to wonderful libraries in the U.S. Also of interest is “The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World.” If even those can’t satisfy your desires try “The Renaissance Library Collection” which sells calenders, greeting cards, and posters of nothing but, yes, libraries.

A tip of the hat to excellent blogs The Nonist and Sheila Omalley who had previously compiled some lovely library images. A number of the beautiful images in the compendium are from that ever wonderful resource Flickr. For source attribution please click here.

Finally, if anyone feels that any particularly beautiful library has been overlooked please let us know.