The world's most beautiful libraries – in pictures

Stiftsbibliothek Admont, Admont, Austria. The world’s largest monastery library was built in 1776 and is known for its Baroque architecture, art and manuscripts

Biblioteca do Convento de Mafra, Mafra, Portugal. This library is 88 metres long and the bookshelves contain more than 36,000 leather-bound volumes

Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland. This is the largest library in Ireland and is the permanent home to the Book of Kells

Biblioteca Statale Oratoriana dei Girolamini, Naples, Italy. The oldest library in Naples which has been open to the public since 1566

Stiftsbibliothek Kremsmünster, Kremsmünster, Austria. This monastery library was built between 1680 and 1689 and contains about 160,000 volumes

Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . This institution was founded in 1837 by a group of Portuguese immigrants to promote culture amongst the Portuguese community

Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland. The oldest library in Switzerland is also one of the earliest and most important monastic libraries in the world

Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, France. This library contains more than 2m documents and was the inspiration for the Boston Public Library

Rijksmuseum, Research Library, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Established in 1885, it is the largest public art history research library in the Netherlands

Strahovská Knihovna, Prague, Czech Republic. The library boasts two grand baroque halls but visitors are unable to go inside them: it was found that fluctuations in humidity could affect the paintings

Biblioteca Joanina, Coimbra, Portugal. It is one of only two libraries in the world that houses bats to protect the books against insects