Readers of this blog will know that we’re into beautiful books. Last week I visited Prague for the first time and managed to snap this (illicit) picture of the Baroque Library Hall at the Klementinum in Prague (clcik the photo to see it in grand size):
The Baroque Library Hall is the home of Czech National Library and is home to around 20,000 books going back as far as the 16th century. The Klementinum tour was one of the surprising delights of our time in Prague, at least for me. We had an energetic, although difficult to understand tour guide, who delighted in relaying the stories of the Mirror Chapel, this library, and especially the Astronomical Tower. If you ever visit Prague, I’d recommend this tour as a great way to see the city from up high.
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Hello,
This place formed the settings for many Czech movies, but the atmosphere is something one can’t enjoy in 2D. Neither all the tourists got there, nor all the Czechs who study universities and use the study room below ever get upstairs. It is your plus you made it, because it is opened only sometimes, and really worth a visit.
Oh Anita, now you’re making me wish I’d snuck some illicit video instead (I guess that’s still 2D but at least it moves)! Seriously though, I was floored by Prague and would love to go back and visit sometime when the weather is a little bit warmer. If you live there, consider yourself lucky. Thanks for the comment!
Gorgeous! As soon as I saw it I thought–hold on! That’s not Prague. That’s the amazing library in the benedictine monastery outside Vienna in Melk, which I visited some years back.
http://www.stiftmelk.at/englisch/pages_melk/library.html
But as it happens, the world is filled with these magnificent places. I stumbled on this collection while browsing:
http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=78
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