We’re not shy about our love for libraries and travel — in fact, that passion is what sparked this whole site. We’ve often written about how libraries make incredible travel resources: offering clean bathrooms, reliable Wi-Fi, quiet and comfortable spaces, and a wealth of local knowledge. So, when 1,000 Libraries published the 2025 list of the Top 10 Most Beautiful Libraries in the World, we took notice — and took notes.

For those unfamiliar, 1,000 Libraries offer ‘travel guides for book lovers’. Their social media feeds are packed with dreamy lists like ‘12 Must-Visit Book Towns in Europe’, ‘10 Best Bookstores in Naples’, and ‘5 Must-Visit Libraries in Prague’. Honestly, how could we not love this?

Reading through the top ten list, I realised we’ve only visited three (yes, three) of their winners. Clearly, we need to fix that. What also caught my eye: the two Australian libraries made the cut, with the State Library of South Australia ranked #2 globally, and State Library Victoria in Melbourne, a longtime favorite of ours when visiting Melbourne. (go Australia!)

My unscientific experiment

A few things stood out while reviewing the list. First, every library is historic — no modern architecture here. The styles range from Baroque to Neo-Manueline to Neo-Classical, all from eras long past. The oldest is the Abbey Library of St. Gallen, dating back to around 719 AD, and the newest is the Cuypers Library at the Rijksmuseum, which opened in 1885. The list was also very Euro-centric, with only four libraries outside Europe.

My curious piqued, I ran a very unscientific experiment: I pulled ‘beautiful library’ lists from 11 major travel, news, and design sources and compared them with the 1,000 Libraries list. Here’s what I found:

Across my 11 sources, there were 35 unique libraries mentioned.
About 25% of the libraries from my sources were modern buildings constructed after 1900. For lovers of contemporary library architecture, check out the Public Library of the Year Award by IFLA, which highlights stunning new buildings worldwide annually.
Interestingly, only two libraries appeared exclusively on the 1,000 Libraries list and not on the other sources, The State Library of South Australia (Australia) and Cuypers Library at Rijksmuseum (Netherlands). None of my other sources recognised these two in their top picks.

The Top 10 (plus one)

Here are the most frequently mentioned libraries across those 11 sources:

Bodleian Library, Oxford, United Kingdom
Library of Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
New York Public Library (Stephen A. Schwarzman Building), New York, USA
Admont Abbey Library, Admont, Austria
George Peabody Library, Baltimore, USA
Strahov Abbey Library, Prague, Czech Republic
Biblioteca Joanina, Coimbra, Portugal
Escorial Library, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain
Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Biblioteca Vasconcelos, Mexico City, Mexico
Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart, Germany

Noticeably, this list includes more libraries from the US and South America, but nothing from Australia. And three on the list opened after 1900: New York Public Library, Biblioteca Vasconcelos, and Stuttgart City Library

If you want to explore more, here are the sources I used for compiling these ‘beautiful library’ lists: BBC, Wanderlust, National Geographic, The Guardian, Travel + Leisure, Elle Decor, CNBC, Condé Nast Traveller, Wired, CNN, Contiki

Now what?

What did I learn from this? Even non-librarians can’t resist the draw of a beautiful library. And there’s universal agreement that the Bodleian Library is stunning. I’m definitely adding more of these to my travel bucket list — and my next Google Map!

Have you been to any of these beautiful libraries? Are there any that didn’t appear on the list? Let us know on Instagram or Pinterest.

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