Get some inspiration for a 2026 literary journey with libraries that inspired the likes of Harry Potter, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and more.
If you’re wondering what libraries to hit up in 2026, scroll through this list of 22 of the most gorgeous libraries in the world.
Bibliothèque Nationale de France Richelieu – Paris, France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (or BnF) Richelieu is the historic home of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It was installed in the former Palais Mazarin in central Paris since the early 18th century and recently reopened after over a decade of renovation.
This site holds two of the most architecturally awe-inspiring reading rooms in the country—the Oval Room and Salle Labrouste—plus other gorgeous museums, galleries, and public spaces. Although entry to Salle Labrouste is limited to researchers, visitors can enjoy free access to the Oval Room and other exhibitions at Richelieu.
Address: 5 Rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France
Opening hours:
– Tuesday: 10AM – 8PM
– Wednesday to Sunday: 10AM – 6PM
– Monday: Closed
Trinity College Library – Dublin, Ireland
When we say this is the most beautiful library in the world, that’s not just personal opinion—it’s that the Long Room was voted into the top place by readers across the internet on our 2025 Most Beautiful Libraries in the World list.
Built in the early 1700s, this college’s reading room is the world’s longest single-chamber library at 65 meters—or about two-thirds of a football field for US of Aers out there. Its shelves are currently empty as it undergoes major restoration, but you can still visit and enjoy the architecture.
Address: Old Library, College Green, South-East Inner City, Dublin 2, D02 VR66, Ireland
Opening hours:
– Monday: 9:30AM – 4:30PM
– Tuesday to Saturday: 9:30AM – 5PM
– Sunday: 12PM – 5PM
Library of Congress – Washington, D.C., USA
This isn’t only the de facto national library of the United States—it’s one of the biggest libraries in the world, occupying three main buildings on Capitol Hill. The fanciest and most famous of these is the Thomas Jefferson Building, with multiple grand staircases, Neoclassical columns, and an interior that’ll have you dropping your jaw like a Looney Tunes character.
You don’t ever have to worry about feeling claustrophobic in these halls—everywhere you go, the ceiling stretches up crazy high, and everywhere you turn is intricate detailing on banisters, arches, and even the walls and ceiling. It’s a true piece of artwork in architecture. Tickets are free, but you do have to book them in advance.
Address: 101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540, United States
Opening hours:
– Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday: 10AM – 5PM
– Thursday: 10AM – 8PM
– Monday & Sunday: Closed
New York Public Library (Stephen A. Schwarzman) – NYC, USA
As impressive as the Library of Congress is, the Stephen A. Schwarzman building of the New York Public Library is the stuff of legends, often featured in movies and other media. Opened in 1911, this landmark features a Beaux-Arts design that is at once imposing and majestic.
The building houses around 2.5 million volumes and features iconic spaces like the Rose Main Reading Room, which has a beautifully intricate ceiling and fresco, and is also quite a sight to see. The library is so beautiful, in fact, that some people even choose to get married here!
Address: 476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018, United States
Opening hours:
– Monday & Thursday to Saturday: 10AM – 5:45PM
– Tuesday & Wednesday: 10AM – 7:45 PM
– Sunday: 1PM – 4:45PM
Boston Public Library – Boston, USA
Founded in 1848 as the first large free municipal library in the U.S., the Boston Public Library is located in Copley Square in an iconic building with Renaissance architecture and some very sophisticated research collections.
It has many halls with particularly impressive designs, whether in the form of a barrel-vaulted ceiling lined with vivid murals to an entire room made of smoky amber marble. Not every corner of this building is traditional, though, and there’s a particularly striking section with sleek modern design and reds popping against blacks and muted beige.
Address: 700 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116, United States
Opening hours:
– Monday to Thursday: 9AM – 8PM
– Friday & Saturday: 9AM – 5PM
– Sunday: 11AM – 5PM
National Library of China – Beijing, China
As one of the biggest countries in the world, it stands to reason that China is also home to one of the biggest libraries, too, with around 41 million items. The National Library of China in Beijing, founded in 1909, got a new look in 2008 with a building that seamlessly meshes modern design with traditional Chinese architecture.
The interior is structured to symbolize China’s past, present, and future with a stony base housing historical collections, a middle section for public spaces, and a steel top for the digital library.
Address: 33 Zhongguancun S Ave, Haidian District, China, 100089
Opening hours:
South Area:
– Tuesday to Sunday: 9AM – 5PM
– Monday: Closed
North Area:
(March to October)
– Tuesday to Sunday: 9AM – 9PM
– Monday: Closed
(November to February)
– Tuesday to Sunday: 9AM – 8PM
– Monday: Closed
Starfield Library, Suwon and COEX – South Korea
Both of these libraries test the age-old perception of what a library can be: not a dusty collection of books or a grand, historic building with vaulted ceilings, but something modern, sleek, and fitting perfectly within day-to-day life by slotting them right in the middle of bustling malls.
COEX features massive, towering bookcases built like tanks, serving as perfect sentinels for the seasonal art pieces and events that take place in the center of the sprawling floor plan.
Suwon, meanwhile, takes a more geometric angle, climbing up through four floors of the Starfield Suwon Mall under a celestial display hanging from the ceiling.
Starfield COEX Address: South Korea, Seoul, Gangnam District, Yeongdong-daero, 513 스타필드 코엑스몰 B1
Opening hours:
– Monday to Sunday: 10:30AM – 10PM
Starfield Suwon Address: 175 Suseong-ro, Jangan-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Opening hours:
– Monday to Sunday: 10AM – 10PM
State Library Victoria – Melbourne, Australia
The State Library of Victoria is Australia’s oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. It opened in 1856 and was crowned the seventh most beautiful library in the world for 2025. Its La Trobe Reading Room is instantly recognizable with its hexagonal shape and six long, partitioned desks stretching from the center like the lines of an eight-pointed star.
The Neoclassical architectural design is truly stunning, both inside and out. And even though the La Trobe room is the most iconic, it’s hardly the only spot worth visiting. Encompassing a massive property, there are plenty of gardens, exhibits, and other impressive spaces to explore.
Address: 328 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Opening hours:
– Monday to Sunday: 10AM – 6PM
The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Though the current building for the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading was built in the 1880s, the people who founded it were a group of Portuguese immigrants inspired forty years prior by the French reading rooms that were popular at the time. Since then, the library’s collection and prestige have only grown.
The current building’s architectural style gives the impression of a grand cathedral with military discipline, both reverent and dignified at once, ranking eighth on our list of most beautiful libraries. It houses the largest collection of Portuguese literature outside Portugal.
Address: R. Luís de Camões, 30 – Centro, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 20051-020, Brazil
Opening hours:
– Monday to Friday: 10AM – 5PM
– Saturday & Sunday: Closed
Clementinum Library – Prague, Czech Republic
The Clementinum (written as “Klementinum” in Czech) is a historic Baroque complex that was once a 16th-century Jesuit college. Back in 1781, it became a legal deposit library and has been building up its collection ever since.
The architecture is notable for its grand Baroque Hall with beautiful frescoes, housing over 20,000 rare books and manuscripts. The complex includes courtyards, churches, a theatre, and an astronomical observatory—and as a whole, is so expansive that it’s the second biggest complex in all of Prague.
Address: Mariánské nám. 5, 110 00 Staré Město, Czechia
Opening hours:
October to March
– Monday to Sunday: 9AM – 7PM
April to September
– Monday to Sunday: 9AM – 8PM
Strahov Library – Prague, Czech Republic
Clementinum isn’t the only Baroque library in Prague (or on this list, but that’s self-evident). Strahov Library, part of the Strahov Monastery, just so happens to have two Baroque halls, each with its own unique charm: the Theological Hall and the Philosophical Hall.
The Theological Hall features thousands of religious and theological texts, with a largely white ceiling interspersed with colorful frescoes. The larger Philosophical Hall, meanwhile, focuses more on humanity’s intellectual journey through the ages with books on history, astronomy, and philosophy.
Address: Strahovské nádvoří 132/1, 118 00 Praha 1-Hradčany, Czechia
Opening hours:
– Monday to Sunday: 9AM – 5PM (last entry is 4:30PM)
Biblioteca Joanina – Coimbra, Portugal
Built in the early 1700s, the Biblioteca Joanina houses 60,000 volumes set on elaborate, gilded oak shelves. It’s three stories tall, and its main reading room stands as a masterpiece of Baroque opulence, complete with marble archways, detailed ceiling frescoes, and a downright regal level of detailing in every banister and pillar.
Other rooms are less fancy but still hold plenty of historically significant items. And as the library is on the grounds of the University of Coimbra, you better believe it cares about academia.
Address: Biblioteca Joanina, 3000-233 Coimbra, Portugal
Opening hours:
– Monday to Sunday: 9AM – 1PM & 2PM – 5PM (last entry to library at 4:40PM)
Mafra Palace Library – Mafra, Portugal
Part of a vast, 18th-century palace-monastery complex, this library has a stunning Rococo design and a book collection spanning the 14th to 19th centuries. The two-level library holds shelves made from mahogany and rosewood, plus ornate ceilings with frescoes.
The library is temporarily closed for restoration work, to keep it spic and span while maintaining its historic charm. It was originally supposed to be reopened at the end of 2025, but a date hasn’t been confirmed yet. Fingers crossed for 2026!
Address: Terreiro D. João V, Mafra, Portugal
Opening hours:
For the Mafra Palace; hours for the library upon reopening may differ
– Wednesday to Monday: 9:30AM – 5:30PM
– Tuesday: Closed
Royal Library of El Escorial – San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain
This Renaissance masterpiece was completed around 1584 and spans 54 meters or 177 feet. The complex and the library itself are truly palatial, which comes as no surprise given that they were commissioned by a king.
It has a straight-laced sort of exterior with not a lot of elaborate decor popular in Baroque and Rococo styles, but that’s completely flipped around once you step inside. There, the opulence goes all-out, with ornate wooden shelves and a barrel-vaulted ceiling covered in bright, colorful paintings.
Address: Av Juan de Borbón y Battemberg, s/n, 28200 San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain
Opening hours:
– Tuesday to Sunday: 10AM – 6PM
– Monday: Closed
Austrian National Library (State Hall) – Vienna, Austria
While there’s plenty to see in the Austrian National Library, the biggest draw is its State Hall. This elaborately designed space features a grand oval dome with frescoes depicting Charles VI’s apotheosis, walnut bookcases, marble statues of past rulers, and four massive Venetian globes.
The book collection includes over 200,000 volumes from as early as the 16th century, including the collection of a former prince.
Address: Josefsplatz 1, 1015 Wien, Austria
Opening hours:
October to May:
– Tuesday, Wednesday, & Friday to Sunday: 9AM – 7PM
– Thursday: 9AM – 9PM
– Monday: Closed
June to September:
– Monday to Wednesday & Friday to Sunday: 9AM – 7PM
– Thursday: 9AM – 9PM
Abbey Library of St. Gallen – St. Gallen, Switzerland
This particular library made both UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites and our list as the third most beautiful library in the world. The abbey as a whole was founded around 612 AD, and its library is one of the world’s oldest continuously operating libraries.
The current Rococo hall was built in the mid-18th century and has a design that’s extremely elegant while still being solidly grounded. It features ornate frescoes depicting church councils, stucco work, curved balconies, and over 170,000 volumes, including 2,100 medieval manuscripts like the Irish Gospels.
Address: Klosterhof 6D, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Opening hours:
– Monday to Sunday: 10AM – 5PM
Duke Humfrey’s Library – Oxford, England
Part of the Bodleian Old Library in Oxford University, Duke Humfrey’s Library is the university’s oldest reading room, built in the 1400s to hold books donated by the duke the library is named after. It definitely keeps that old-world feel, standing as a beautifully preserved example of medieval architecture and ranked as the fourth most beautiful in the world.
Here, you can marvel at oak bookcases, vaulted ceilings, and stained-glass windows. Expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries, it’s chock full of rare books, manuscripts, and maps.
Address: University of Oxford, Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BG, United Kingdom
Opening hours:
– Monday to Friday: 9AM – 5PM
– Saturday & Sunday: Closed
Admont Abbey Library – Admont, Austria
Standing at fifth on our list of most beautiful libraries is Admont Abbey. It also just so happens to be one of the largest monastery libraries in the world, holding 200,000 volumes on its pristine white bookcases.
The whole place honestly looks like it came out of a dream, so it’s little surprise that some of the frescoes painted in the library depict divine revelation (achieved, of course, thanks to the pursuit of knowledge that libraries aid us in). What more needs to be said?
Address: Kirchplatz 1, 8911 Admont, Austria
Opening hours:
March 19 to May & October to December 14:
– Wednesday to Sunday: 10:30AM – 3:30PM
– Monday & Tuesday: Closed
June to September:
– Tuesday to Sunday: 10AM – 5PM
– Monday: Closed
Cuypers Library (Rijksmuseum Research Library) – Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Cuypers Library, located in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, is the oldest and largest art historical library in the Netherlands, opened in 1885. Designed by architect Pierre Cuypers in a neo-Gothic style, it features Gothic architecture, vaulted ceilings with skylights, stained glass, and steel balconies.
The library houses around 450,000 items, including monographs, periodicals, and art auction catalogues. Researchers can reserve in advance to borrow, and pretty much any visitor can drop by to peer inside—though walking along its century-old shelves is a bit more restricted.
Address: Rijksmuseum, Museumpromenade 1, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands
Opening hours:
– Monday to Saturday: 10AM – 5PM
– Sunday: Closed
Wiblingen Abbey Library – Ulm, Germany
If you needed more evidence that Rococo libraries are the most gorgeously opulent libraries out there, here it is. Outfitted with pastel pink and teal marble and gilding to the nines, the Wiblingen Abbey Library was ranked ninth on our list of most beautiful libraries and stands as a masterpiece of 18th-century architecture.
The interior shows off colorful frescoes of both Pagan and Christian figures, as well as amazingly intricate sculptwork and art. It originally housed 15,000 volumes, though only 96 of those remain on its shelves.
Address: Schloßstraße 38, 89079 Ulm, Germany
Opening hours:
November 1 to March 14
– Saturday & Sunday: 12PM – 4PM
– Monday to Friday: Closed
March 15 to April 5 & August 1 to September 7
– Tuesday to Sunday: 10:30AM – 4PM
– Monday: Closed
April 6 to July 31 & September 8 to October 31
– Tuesday to Friday & Sunday: 10:30AM – 4PM
– Saturday: 1PM – 4PM
– Monday: Closed
Sainte-Geneviève Library – Paris, France
This is not only one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, in tenth place, but it has quite a bit of historical import as Paris’s first building specifically constructed as a library. It was designed with iron struts and columns by the same architect behind BnF Richelieu’s famous Salle Labrouste room, Henri Labrouste.
Its design was very innovative for its time, and even still today, the exposed iron frame is a unique and powerful kind of beauty that adds a touch of strength to an otherwise light and airy building.
Address: 10 Pl. du Panthéon, 75005 Paris, France
Opening hours:
– Monday to Saturday: 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
– Sunday: Closed
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K Lou
K. Lou is a writer born in the U.S. who found her way to Japan through a spiritual calling—or, more precisely, better access to tea. She writes about travel, culture, and the occasional creative piece, inspired by her enduring love of books. This love began in high school when K. Lou carried books around to avoid seeming odd while lost in thought. Once she started reading, she never stopped. With zero regrets, she continues to explore the written word and invites others to join her in celebrating its varied forms.
