Mafra Palace Library
Mafra, Portugal. Founded 1771.
- Type: Monastic
- City: Mafra
- Country: Portugal
- Founded: 1771
Overview
In the vast palace convent built by Joao V from 1717, the library hall runs 88 meters beneath a barrel vault and a floor of patterned marble. Some 36,000 leather bound volumes with gilded spines, organized in the 1770s, form one of the finest Enlightenment collections in Europe. Bats shelter in the roof at night and hunt the insects that would threaten the books.
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