4 MAGICAL PRAGUE LIBRARIES YOU MUST VISIT (4K)! DON'T MISS THESE 🐛📚💫

If you're a book lover then you must join me for my new video. I'm going to be showing you all the magical libraries that you can visit in Prague. Prague truly is a fairy tale city in Europe but I feel the most magical locations that you can visit are their historic libraries. These enchanting book troves make great day trips whatever the weather. So here are the four magical libraries that you must visit in Prague. Prague is one of my favorite cities in all of Europe. It looks like a fairy tale with its cobbled lanes and old buildings and it is often called a city of a thousand spires. Now there are plenty of magical things to do whether that be to explore the charming old town, cross the incredible Charles Bridge, watch the incredible astronomical clock in the main square or explore Prague Castle, Saint Vita's Cathedral and the quaint fairy tale Golden Lane. But Prague's libraries are truly something else and the first magical library that you must visit in Prague is the one inside the Clementinum. This has been consistently voted as one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. It was built as part of a Jesuit college in the Baroque style and is home to a collection of 20,000 rare books. As well as bookshelves or tomes you'll find frescoes, astronomical globes and portraits that decorate the rooms. Honestly breathtaking and it looks like something from a fairy tale or Hogwarts library in Harry Potter. Now the only way that you can visit this library is to take a guided tour and they do have a tendency to sell out so it's well worth planning ahead to avoid disappointment. It's also worth noting that they only open the doors for a short amount of time so make sure to get those photos. This is also known as the National Baroque Library of the Czech Republic and it was built in 1722 by Kilian Ignak Dienzenhofer. It has spiral wood columns, murals like the Temple of Wisdom in Greek mythology, precious books like the Devil's Bible and a witch's grimoire called Libra Sapiente. It's good to note that the Clementinum library is only a part of your tour. During your visit you'll get to see many rooms within this building including the Meridian Hall where Jesuit astronomers were able to determine the Prague Meridian or High Noon and your tour will end in the Astronomical Tower which is 52 metres high and to get to the top you'll have to climb 172 steep steps. However the views from the top are well worth it. This incredible viewpoint allows you to see over the city towards Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, the Church of Our Lady before Tin and the Old Town Square. Across the road is the next library which is the Prague Municipal Library. Now although this is a public library the main Now this art installation has gone a bit viral on social media and that's because it's an optical illusion that looks like a tower of infinite books. It's a huge book tower made up of 8,000 stacked books and was built in 1998 by a Slovak artist called Matej Kren who lives and works in Prague. Every book that was used for this installation was either donated or saved from being thrown away and if you look through the tear-shaped opening you'll see the optical illusion. It has won awards and has been featured in the Science magazine and it sees thousands of visitors every year so be prepared to queue. If you visit on the weekend or in peak season you could be waiting up to 30 to 60 minutes to go inside this illusion. Honestly if you're a book lover it is well worth your time. It's completely free to visit and it makes a great budget at a busy in Prague for any book lover. If you wanted to try and avoid some of the crowds I would get Now the last two libraries that we will visit in Prague are found in the same complex so it's really easy to visit them. These are called the Strahov libraries and they can be found within Strahov monastery. You will pay to see two breathtaking baroque rooms and these rooms will be stuffed with ancient tomes, ceiling frescoes, stucco artwork and astronomical globes. It's not always clear at the ticket desk but it's good to know that you won't be able to enter the themselves unless you've booked a special tour. You'll be looking at them through a doorway which is fine because that means they're empty and it makes a great photo opportunity. And the first of these will be the philosophical hall. This incredible library was built in the 18th century and is home to 42 000 books on subjects like mathematics, history, astronomy and philology and the ceiling fresco is called intellectual progress of mankind which tells the story of the developments of science and religion. On there you'll see characters from the old testament. EDI'd Outlander fans will also recognize this from series two of Outlander. Jamie and Devonay were playing chess where Claire gets poisoned here. And the last library we'll visit on our tour is the theological hall in the same building. The theological hall was built before the philosophical hall in the 17th century and was built during the office of Abbott Geronim Hernine. The gorgeous stucco artworks were created by Italian architect Giovanni Domenico Orsi. You'll find 20 000 volumes of books, a gothic statue of Saint John the Evangelist and also terrestrial and astronomical globes throughout. Again you can't enter the library without a special tour but this is one of the most breathtaking libraries I have ever seen and simply looking at it through the window was enough. Again with both of these libraries they are very popular and although you can't go inside you may still have to queue to see through the window but it is well worth waiting for and the entire place was breathtaking. For my photographers out there it may be worth noting that there may be people inside on your tour. This can be slightly frustrating but luckily for us it was a music concert and it was wonderful hearing classical music at such a unique location. If this does happen to you on your visit I would recommend sticking around until the special tour groups leave. They don't hang around in the libraries too long and then you can just wait to get an empty photo of this spectacular room. I actually think that out of all the library rooms that I saw on my visit this has to be my favourite. The detail is just incredible. Beyond the library rooms make sure to check out some of their exhibits. In the room that you enter they have a series of books on display which is some of their most precious collection. They also have a cabinet of curiosity which has lots of things to show you. You'll find all sorts of precious minerals, crystals, a narwhal tusk that they thought was a unicorn horn, even more books and tons of bric-a-brac that is well worth seeing. Many people think that it's a bit of a rip-off to go into these libraries because you can't enter them but actually I think it was well worth the money because these libraries are some of the best that you can see in the entire world. It's only 150 CZK which is around £6 or $7 and they have reductions for concession. After your visit make sure to check out the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on Strahov. It's a beautiful baroque building and again you can't go inside but it's still incredibly beautiful. Then you can get a pick-me-up in the Strahov Monastery Bureau called St Norbert. They serve up some incredible beer and homemade food on site. I really hope you enjoyed our tour of the magical libraries that you can visit in Prague. Honestly I've visited many libraries now and Prague has some of the most beautiful in the entire world. Let me know what you think in the comments and tell me if I missed any bookish locations. Thank you so much for taking your time to watch the video and if you liked it please remember to subscribe. Thank you!