Coimbra · Portugal
Biblioteca Joanina — the most beautiful library in the world
Three gilded halls of 18th-century books, a colony of bats that guards them at night, and the whole Palace of Schools around it. Timed entry, booked in two minutes.
Book your tickets
Pick your date and library entry time below. Arrive at the ticket kiosk on Rua Larga 20 minutes before your slot.
Welcome to the Biblioteca Joanina
A king's gift to his university
King John V paid for it, put his portrait at the far end and gave it his name: the Biblioteca Joanina, built between 1717 and 1728 at the top of Coimbra's old town. Three connected halls in rosewood, ebony and gold hold some 60,000 volumes from the 16th to 18th centuries — and the whole building was designed to keep them alive, from the thick walls that hold a steady temperature to the bats that eat the insects after closing time.
Discover the university
Where would you like to start?
History & Architecture
From a Celtic hillfort to a royal seat, a burnt-out ruin and back again — and the Slovak National Museum’s history collections inside today.
Visitor Info
Tours, seasonal opening hours, tickets and accessibility — everything you need before you arrive.
Bookings
Choose a tour and reserve your date and time online in a couple of minutes.
Find & Navigate
The castle on the map, with directions for your visit.
The bats
The library's night shift
Two colonies of bats live behind the bookcases. Every evening the staff cover the tables with leather cloths, and the bats come out to hunt the beetles and moths that would otherwise eat the paper. It has worked for two centuries, and it is why the tables are wiped down every morning before the first visitors arrive.
What visitors say
Loved by travellers from around the world
Fifteen minutes is short, but nothing prepares you for the gold and the smell of old wood. Book a morning slot — the light through the high windows is best then.
The ticket includes far more than the library: the Royal Palace hall where exams were held, the chapel with its painted organ, the science museum. Give it half a day.
Buy the timed ticket ahead. We watched people being turned away for the afternoon slots in July. The academic prison under the library is a strange little bonus.