The world's most beautiful libraries and bookstores in 2025
A total of 200,000 book lovers voted for the world's most beautiful libraries – selected from a shortlist of 20 – for the annual 1000 Libraries Awards in May.
In 5th place was Austria's Admont Abbey Library, the inspiration for the iconic grand library in the classic Disney animation, Beauty and the Beast.
Duke Humfrey's Library in the UK's University of Oxford came 4th. It's one of Europe's oldest reading rooms still in use.
In 3rd place is this ethereal spot: The Abbey Library of St Gallen in Switzerland. Founded in 612 by an Irish monk, it's one of the world’s most significant monastic libraries.
Coming in 2nd is the State Library of South Australia in Adelaide. The 189-year-old library's famed Mortlock Chamber is so beautiful people rent it for events.
The world's most beautiful library in 2025 is the Library of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. It's been compared to the magical library from the Harry Potter series.
Book lovers also voted for the world's most beautiful bookstores – literary spaces that continue to preserve the magic of bookselling in the digital age.
5th place went to Word on the Water. Permanently moored on Regent’s Canal in London, it's a barge turned bookshop offering new and secondhand titles in English.
In 4th place is The Gently Mad Bookshop in Edinburgh, UK. The family-run bookstore is also a bookbinder – and has supposedly bound books for the Queen of England.
In 3rd is El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Set in a 1919 theatre house, it was - rightfully - named the world's most gorgeous bookstore in 2019 by National Geographic.
In 2nd place is Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France. The English-language bookshop has reportedly served literary icons like James Baldwin and Anais Nin.
The world's most beautiful bookstore in 2025 is Boekhandel Dominicanen in the Netherlands. It's housed in a restored 13th-century Gothic church.
