Every single one of us has a place they go to feel relaxed, to feel that special magic. Some travelers focus only on medieval castles, others prefer abandoned factories or haunted houses... I must admit that there is something special about the stillnes and tranquility of silence in libraries. Every shelf filled with a story, a tale to be told, a secret to be uncovered. Todays blog post is devoted to those special many-hundred-year-old buildings. Beautiful Libraries.

An there's an excerpt from the Curious Expeditions blog:

We had a chance to see just such a library on our recent visit to Prague. Tucked away on the top of a hill in Prague is the Strahov Monestary, the second oldest monastery in Prague. Inside, divided into two major halls, is a breathtaking library. The amazing Theological Hall contains 18,000 religious texts, and the grand Philosophical Hall has over 42,000 ancient philosophical texts. Both are stunningly gorgeous. Strahov also contains a beautiful cabinet of curiosities, including bits of a Dodo bird, a large 18th century electrostatic device, numerous wonderfully old ocean specimens, and for unclear reasons many glass cases full of waxen fruit. Our delight was manifest.

Shocked into a library induced euphoria, Curious Expeditions has attempted to gather together the world’s most beautiful libraries for you starting with our own pictures of Strahov. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Strahov Theological Hall - Original Baroque Cabinet

Strahov Theological Hall; Statue of John the Evangelist Holding a Book

Strahov Philosophical Hall

Angelica Library, Rome, Italy

Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel, Germany

Beatus Rhenanus Library, Basel, Switzerland

Bernadotte Library, Stockholm Sweden

Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, Italy

Biblioteca Di Bella Arti, Milan, Italy

Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I, Lisbon Coast, Portugal

Biblioteca do Palàcio Nacional da Ajuda Lisboa III, Lisbon, Portugal

Biblioteca Geral University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Biblioteca Palafoxiana, Puebla, Mexico

Bibliotecha de la Real Academia De La Lengua, Madrid, Spain

Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Possibly the most beautiful library of them all.)

Rennie Mackintosh Library, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland

Those and more of fabulous library pictures can be found at this great website (all the photo credit goes to the great guys from Curious Expeditions!).