For the last couple years, Jill Harness has been rounding up the world’s most beautiful libraries by continent. Here are 5 of the most beautiful libraries in the World,, in no particular order.
Trinity College Library, Ireland
Image courtesy of Irish Welcome Tours’ Flickr stream.
Aside from being absolutely gorgeous, with two story dark wooden arches, this is also the largest library in all of Ireland. It serves as the country’s copyright library, where a copy of all new books and periodicals must be sent when they apply for copyright protection. The library is also home to the famous Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created by Celtic monks around the year 800.
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, France
Image courtesy of Wikipedia user Zubro.
The National Library of France has expanded greatly since new buildings were added to house the collection in 1988. Even so, the old buildings on the Rue de Richelieu are still in use, and are utterly gorgeous as well. These buildings were completed in 1868, and by 1896 the library was the largest book repository in the world, although that record has since been taken from it.
The Library of El Escorial, Spain
Image courtesy of Jose Maria Cuellar’s Flickr stream.
This library is located in the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the historical residence of the king of Spain. Phillip II was responsible for adding the library and most of the books originally held within. The vaulted ceilings were painted with gorgeous frescoes, each representing one of the seven liberal arts: rhetoric, dialectic, music, grammar, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. These days, the library is a World Heritage Site, and it holds more than 40,000 volumes.
Handelingenkamer, Netherlands
Image courtesy of Jackie Kever’s Flickr stream.
The library of the Dutch Parliament contains every record of parliamentary hearings and discussions. Because it was built before electric lighting made the storage of books a lot safer, the building was constructed with a massive leaded glass dome in the ceiling to allow in light and minimize the need for candles and gas lamps inside the library.
Jay Walker’s Private Library, USA
Images courtesy of Aaron « tango » Tang’s Flickr stream.
Priceline.com founder Jay Walker’s gorgeous wooden library, filled with an array of historical and pop culture artifacts, has been labeled by Wired as « the most amazing library in the world.” As if the gorgeous etched glass, labyrinthine design and multiple stories of book shelves weren’t impressive enough, the collection of rarities stored in the library is completely mesmerizing. Between books bound in rubies, a Sputnik, a chandelier from Die Another Day, and a list of plague mortalities from 1665, visitors to the private library might just have a hard time leaving.
Of course, with all the thousands of libraries in the world, this list of beautiful libraries still leaves out plenty of gorgeous architectural marvels. If you feel your favorite library was left out, feel free to tell everyone about it in the comments.
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