With iconic architecture, impressive art collections and lush gardens, some libraries across the world have more than just books on display.

While it is said that one should not judge a book by its cover, this is one case in which evaluating something based on its appearance is not only accepted, but encouraged.

From Canada to Austria, some beautiful libraries are known for noteworthy exteriors – like soaring architecture and bountiful gardens – and interiors featuring designs like frescoed ceilings or walls made entirely of glass. And that is nothing compared to the millions of books housed within their walls.

Here is a list of few beautiful libraries from across the world that enrich the visitor’s mind as well as spirits.

Library of Parliament, Canada

Located in Canada’s capital Ottawa, the sophisticated library that opened more than 150 years ago, in 1867, has been designed in the Victorian Gothic Revival style.

With its majestic flying buttresses, impressive vaulted ceiling, walls lined with finely detailed carved and white pine panelling, it is little wonder that the library has become a Canadian cultural and architectural icon.

The centre-piece is the masterfully inlaid parquet floor made of cherry, oak and walnut, which has many visitors staring at their feet rather than books.

Tianjin Binhai Library, China

Located in China’s Tianjin town, the ultra-modern Tianjin Binhai Library has turned heads of bibliophiles the world over as photos of the building’s futuristic design went viral soon after it was inaugurated in 2017. It received over 10,000 visitors per day back then and continues to be Tianjin’s top tourist attraction.

Its futuristic design is complete with undulating shelves from floor to ceiling, a giant spherical atrium and, most importantly, space for more than one million books.

The library is part of the Binhai Cultural Center, being one of its five central attractions. The five-level library features floor-to-ceiling, terraced bookshelves and a large, luminous sphere in the centre, called ‘The Eye’, that looks like an iris but serves as an auditorium with a capacity of 110 persons.

Often confusing tourists with its out-of-reach book shelves, the library, designed by Dutch firm MVRDV, has aluminium plates printed with book images kept on top and not actual books.

John Rylands Library, United Kingdom

Described by many of its visitors as resembling the Hogwarts Hall from Harry Potter, the extraordinary John Rylands Library is a classic example of neo-gothic architecture, located in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Founded in 1889 by Enriqueta Ryland in memory of her late husband, it took ten years to build before opening in 1900.

The library has a crypt above which the building has two unequal storeys giving the impression of three. Its two-centred arched portal has doorways separated by a trumeau or a pillar and tall windows on either side. Above the doors are a pair of small canted projecting bay windows. Surfaces are decorated with lacy blind tracery and finely-detailed carving.

The high vaulted ceiling in the reading room is a haven of calm, embellished with extraordinary detail. This detailing is also evident on the huge stained glass windows, and also within a series of portraits and sculptures recounting the intellectual and artistic history of mankind.

Oodi library, Finland

The extravagant and eccentric Oodi library in Helsinki, Finland, is one of the world’s newest libraries that has become a tourist attraction. Opened in 2018, it was designed functionally and aesthetically as the perfect public space, which is why it was organised into three distinct and stylised floors.

The ground floor is an active space, while the top floor acts as a peaceful space. The enclosed middle floor targets specific functions and services. The most impressive feature of the entire building is the wooden front facade which arches over the ground floor in a dramatic bridge-like structure.

On the top floor, the undulating ceiling, clad in white acoustic panels lined with mineral wool, creates an uncanny quiet despite the expansive 48,000-square-foot (about 4,800 sqm) floor area. A dreamlike sense is heightened by the room’s floor, whose end slopes meet the ceiling like a skate ramp, the prow of a ship, or an endless landscape.

Stuttgart City Library, Germany

Situated in a concrete cube in the heart of southern German town Stuttgart, is a five-story reading room shaped like an upside-down pyramid. It opened to readers and tourists in 2011.

Inside the library, walls are painted in all-white. The only colours one will see are the book spines. The all-white decor is to create a continuum inside the room. This cube-shaped library will amaze tourists after dark, especially when the building comes alive with blue lights.

Equipped with cafes, meeting rooms and even a rooftop space, it offers all amenities for one to stay up reading all night long. In fact, they have a designated area for readers and a collection of books available for reading at night only.

Admont Abbey Library, Austria

Located in the foothills of the Alps in Admont, Austria, this beautiful library is the second largest monastic library in the world. Originally designed in 1764, it was constructed in the following years by the Austrian master builder Josef Hueber (1715 – 1787).

The seven ceiling frescoes are suffused with the spirit of the Enlightenment and were painted by the then 80-year-old Bartolomeo Altomonte (1694 – 1783) in the summer months of the years 1775 and 1776. They show the various phases of human understanding; beginning with thought and speech, through the sciences and arts and finally culminating in Divine Revelation in the central cupola.

In the cases below this cupola are stored various editions of the Bible and the works of the Church Fathers. In a side room to the north is theological literature while the books on other subjects are to be found in the southern side room.