6 Stunning Libraries Worth a Visit

These historic, beautiful reading rooms in the U.S., Brazil and Europe aren’t just for book lovers

people viewing a colorful, immersive digital presentation at a library in ireland

Visitors to historic libraries are drawn in by the beautiful architecture and the collections. The Book of Kells Experience is an immersive digital presentation at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.

Zoe Ardiff/Trinity College Dublin

Jane Wooldridge,

AARP

Published April 21, 2026

Key takeaways

Libraries have expanded beyond books to become community spaces.
Historic libraries attract millions of people for their architecture and rare collections.
Many offer free entry alongside ticketed tours or exhibits.

Many of us were introduced to libraries by our parents in the preinternet days. Now that so many people read online, libraries have broadened their services to become “a community hub for people to access information and continue to improve their lives,” says Charles Thomas, a director at the Knight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that invests in local journalism, arts, culture and community development. Yet people are still reading voraciously, with 2025 marking the second consecutive year of increased book sales.

For travelers over 50, history and architecture are powerful attractions, according to a heritage tourism market report from Grand View Research, a market research and consulting company. Hundreds of thousands of people each year visit the following libraries to gaze at frescoed ceilings and stacks of leather-bound books and ponder those who made them possible.

Most of the books have been removed from the Long Room at Trinity College ahead of its three-year restoration.

Trinity College Dublin

Trinity College Library

College Green, Dublin

One glance at the 1,200-year-old Book of Kells and you understand why it is said to be the “work of angels.” The elaborate script and the rich color illustrations draw almost 1 million visitors each year. Most of the 200,000-plus books in the 300-year-old Trinity College Long Room have been removed for cleaning in advance of a three-year restoration that includes a new fire protection system. “You can really see its bones,” says Helen Shenton, a Trinity librarian and college archivist, of the 213-foot room’s structure.

At the end of 2027, the Book of Kells, too, will move to a nearby location, she says, where it will be on display. Until then, visitors can see sections of the manuscript in the Treasury room of the Old Library, along with a new immersive digital presentation next door with the Book of Kells Experience for about $30, depending on exchange rates.

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library houses the Rose Main Reading Room, which stretches nearly two city blocks.

Brian Logan/Alamy Stock Photo

New York City Public Library

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 476 Fifth Ave., New York

Just a few blocks east of Times Square sits the imposing marble flagship of the New York Public Library. While the lions guarding the entry may seem daunting, the library was created by its founders and funders in 1911 as a free, accessible place for all. About 3.8 million people visit annually to see treasures from the library system’s collection of 56 million books and objects, including the Bill of Rights and a Gutenberg Bible. They also come to absorb the beauty of the lofty ceiling mural in the Rose Main Reading Room, a beaux arts-style hall stretching nearly two city blocks. Audio tours are available in English, Spanish and Mandarin; free docent-led building tours are held at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday and can be booked online.

the Main Reading Room at the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is home to more than 178 million maps, books, audio recordings and films. Here is the Main Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building.

Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Library of Congress

101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C.

The Library of Congress is often described as a research center, but it’s also an exhibition space and home to more than 178 million maps, books, audio recordings and films — making it the world’s largest library by collection. That’s an impressive rebound from a fire during the War of 1812 that destroyed nearly every book in its collection. (Thomas Jefferson came to the rescue in 1815, selling his personal library of almost 6,500 books to the Library of Congress.) Today’s visitors can get a glimpse of the collection at the new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery, opened in 2024, and The Source, a youth center opening in May 2026. But one of the library’s most awe-inspiring attractions opened in 1897. The Great Hall of its Thomas Jefferson Building is 75 feet high and features an embellished vaulted ceiling filled with skylights and rich artworks.

Entry is free but requires a timed ticket. Building tours are offered several times a day. The library is closed Sunday, Monday and select holidays.

The Abbey Library of St. Gallen features elaborately carved walnut columns with intricate frescoes.

Stetson Glines

Abbey Library of St. Gallen

Klosterhof 6D, 9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Standing amid elaborately carved walnut columns with intricate frescoes overhead, one can’t help but feel a sense of wonder. By some standards, this library, which is part of a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, is relatively small — only 92 feet long and 24 feet high — and holds on its shelves only 30,000 of the abbey’s 170,000 books. But what books they are! Some 900 of them were created before 1500 C.E. Visitors can’t touch the replica of a 16th-century globe or photograph the Egyptian mummy gifted by a powerful politician in 1820, but looking is truly enough.

The abbey, founded by an Irish monk some 1,400 years ago, was a regional powerhouse during medieval times. Its influence resurged in the mid-1700s, when the baroque library and the accompanying cathedral were built. Visiting requires a ticket (about $23, depending on exchange rates) that includes entry to both.

The Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington is built in a collegiate Gothic style.

George Ostertag/Alamy Stock Photo

Suzzallo Library

4000 15th Ave. NE, Seattle

In the early 20th century, American colleges often used architecture to project an image of seriousness aligned with the scholarly traditions of Europe’s more established centers of knowledge. For University of Washington president Henry Suzzallo, the collegiate Gothic style befitted a library that was intended as “the soul of the university.” When it opened in 1926, the sandstone facade featured buttresses topped with sculptures of Moses, Dante, William Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci and other iconic figures. Coats of arms from important global universities, including Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Stanford, were incorporated into the design.

Inside, visitors find a reading room stretching 250 feet long beneath an oak ceiling 65 feet high, oak bookcases and leaded glass windows set with Renaissance watermarks from a book in the library collection. Hand-painted globes bearing the names of famed explorers hang at each end of the room. The library is free and open to the public daily, except Saturday.

The Royal Portuguese Reading Room in Rio de Janeiro houses one of the world’s most important repositories of Portuguese texts.

Alamy Stock Photo

Royal Portuguese Reading Room

Rua Luís de Camões, 30, Rio de Janeiro

From the outside, you might easily mistake this 19th-century limestone facade for an ecclesiastical palace. In fact, its architecture was inspired by Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal, and designed in the Manueline style, which recalls Portugal’s days of maritime exploration.

Rio de Janeiro’s Reading Room was founded in 1837 to preserve Portuguese culture and promote literacy in what was then a young nation. Today, the Royal Portuguese Reading Room is a public library and one of the world’s most important repositories of Portuguese texts. Most of the 1,600 visitors per day come to see its impressive Gothic arches, a soaring stained-glass skylight and three levels of gilt bookshelves. The library is free and open weekdays.

English-language guided tours cost about $3 (depending on exchange rates) and are held most Fridays at 3 p.m. Advance booking is required.

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Jane Wooldridge is an award-winning travel and arts writer who lives in Miami. She is the author of the recently published Comfort in the Wild from Frommer’s.

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