Check Out 7 of the Most Beautiful Libraries in the World

Visitors may be drawn to viewing the several thousand volumes that comprise the Strahov Monastery Library' s collection in Prague, the Czech Republic, but the main attraction is probably over their heads. The monastery library, which originated in the 12th century, features intricately painted biblical scenes on its stucco ceiling. Considered one of the most important historical libraries in Europe, Strahov Monastery Library is home to more than 200,000 books. Among the collection are thousands of books categorized as "in cunabulis," which means they were printed after Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1450 but before the end of the 15th century.

The Handelingenkamer Library inside The Hague, Netherlands, is also known as the Old Library of the Dutch Parliament. This beauty is topped with a glass dome that allows light to filter through the building's four stories. It was constructed at the close of the 19th century and is well known, not only for its architecture, but also for its interior. In this historic library, richly ornamental balustrades and red wrought iron balconies wind and curve around towering shelves of books filled with reports of parliamentary debates and bills. Keep an eye out for the dragon motifs.

Widener is Harvard's flagship library. This marble monolith is filled with notable literary collections that span its 57 miles (91 kilometers) of shelf space. The library was built as a memorial to Harry Elkins Widener, a 1907 Harvard graduate who amassed 3,300 books, manuscripts and drawings — many of them first editions of authors such as Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson — before he died aboard the Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912. Today, Widener Library is known as a "silent library," with two main floors of completely quiet study rooms and five stories of underground literary resources. Graduate students frequently research their thesis topics in the library and then take triumphant photos on Widener's wide front steps upon graduation.

Built between 1717 and 1728, Biblioteca Joanina is one of the world's most exquisitely decorated libraries. Although it features a collection of books published in the 16th to 18th centuries, the library's aesthetic is a huge tourist draw because of its decoratively gilded dark-wood shelves and trompe l´oeil ceilings, a painting style designed to "fool the eye" into perceiving flat surfaces as 3D objects. The library, located at the University of Coimbra, houses a 300,000-book collection, many of the books printed before the 1800s.

The Admont Abbey Library in Admont, Austria, is the largest monastic library in the world. It's also one of the most beautiful. Founded in 1776, the library is part of the oldest still-operating monastery in Austria and features a stunning white and gold Baroque style interior. Atop the gilded shelves and columns in the library's grand two-story interior, curved ceilings feature stunning frescoes painted by Bartolomeo Altomonte, an Austrian who was known for painting large-scale frescoes. Today, the library is home to more than 200,000 sacred texts.

With its two stories of dark wood arches encompassing a collection of more than 7 million volumes, the Old Library at Trinity College, is not only one of the world's oldest libraries, but one of the most renowned. Located in the center of Dublin, the dark and hallowed halls of the Old Library were constructed in 1712. It's a key attraction for tourists, many of whom purchase advance tickets to view the Book of Kells, an illuminated vellum manuscript of the four gospels that dates back to the fourth century. Every day, a different page of the book is displayed to the public.

Unlike the other libraries on our list, this one is practically new. The Tianjin Binhai Library opened to the public in 2017 and was described by Time magazine as a "ziggurat," with its white undulating bookshelves surrounding a spherical auditorium. The 363,000 square-foot (33,700 square-meter) building was designed by Dutch firm MVRDV and can hold 1.35 million books. Built in just three years, it's become quite a tourist attraction since it was finished.