Photography: Bosc d’Anjou
The library of the Mafra National Palace has 500 bats, lodged in cages during the day, who get released at night to keep the literary works safe from the bugs that might damage them. This was the main reason that led the north-american literary website Book Riot to choose the county’s library as the most beautiful in the world.
In October, the library had already been elected the most amazing on a global scale by the british newspaper The Telegraph. This historic and architectural treasure occupies the most extensive and noble of all the rooms in the building, with a length of 85 meters. At the time, and to build its collection, the king John V sent special emissaries abroad, who were responsible for acquiring the best and latest prints.
The library holds around thirty thousand titles, with one highlight being a bull from the pope Benedict XIV in 1754. The general access rules to the palace library’s collection allow that the works get consulted by historians, researchers and students, aged over 18, under strict surveillance rules by the palace staff.
Book Riot is a north-american website dedicated to literature, the sharing of readings and the discussing of topics within the books culture. The website had already chosen, in August, the Lello bookshop in Oporto as the most beautiful in the world.
Esta publicação também está disponível em | This article is also available in: Portuguese (Portugal)
