Spain – Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid
Libraries are enticing for the sheer volume of knowledge they contain, but even more so when they merge with inspiring art and architecture. BLOUIN Culture+Travel takes bibliophiles on a world tour of our historical and contemporary favorites. View our slideshow for images.
1. Admont Library, Admont, Austria
The world’s largest monastery library is located in the Austrian town of Admont. Founded in 1074, the Abbey is known for its baroque architecture, scientific collection, and manuscripts. The 70-meter-long library was built in 1776, and holds around 70,000 of the 200,000 volumes in the monastery’s ownership. The ceiling is adorned with frescoes by Austrian baroque painter Bartolomeo Altomonte, consistent with the building’s Enlightenment-influenced architecture, and the library also houses Josef Stammel’s sculptures, “The Four Last Things.”
2. Strahov Monastery Library, Prague, Czech Republic
Categories: Spain
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