Every great city tells its story through its libraries. These are monuments to human curiosity, architectural statements of civic pride, and, on a practical level, some of the most beautiful rooms in the world. On World Book Day 2025, we take a literary journey across eight libraries that do more than house books: they define the cities they belong to. Three of them, you will find, are closer to home than you might think.

Mohammed bin Rashid Library, Dubai, UAE

Opened in 2022, this architectural masterpiece spans 66,000 square metres and houses over 1.5 million print and digital books, with a database containing over 21 million titles and videos.  The building’s sculptural form is derived from the rahle, the traditional X-shaped bookstand used for reading the Quran, giving it one of the most distinctive silhouettes on the Dubai Creek waterfront. The collection includes six million dissertations, 73,000 musical scores, 75,000 videos, and over 5,000 historical periodicals spanning 325 years, as well as rare manuscripts and first editions dating back to the 13th century.  With eight specialised libraries across seven storeys, from a children’s wing to a business library, MBRL is less a single space and more an entire city of knowledge.

Qasr Al Watan Library, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Nestled within Qasr Al Watan, a working presidential palace and one of the few such headquarters in the world open to the public, this library is one of the most extraordinary reading spaces on the planet.  It includes more than 50,000 titles, approximately 1,800 rare books, and collectibles donated by His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.  Set across 22 rooms, with access to 16 million digital documents, the library is as much an architectural experience as an intellectual one.  Resources are available in Arabic, English, and many other languages, spanning rare manuscripts, research articles, encyclopaedias, and official documents on governance.  Few libraries in the world carry this combination of scholarly rigour and sheer palatial grandeur.

House of Wisdom, Sharjah, UAE

An architectural jewel bearing the stamp of the famed Foster + Partners studio, the House of Wisdom is Sharjah’s most visible declaration of its cultural ambition. Inaugurated to celebrate Sharjah as the 2019 UNESCO World Book Capital, the two-storey building embodies a sense of clarity and lightness, with a large floating roof cantilevering on all sides of a transparent rectilinear volume. From afar, the first thing that catches the eye is its 15-metre-wide cantilevered floating roof and its fully glazed façade. Inside, the library holds more than 100,000 books alongside reading pods, a children’s play area, and a café, a deliberate reimagining of the library as a living social hub, not simply a repository. For a city that has also earned the titles of Cultural Capital of the Arab World and Capital of Islamic Culture, it is entirely fitting.

Library of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Voted the most beautiful library in the world last year, by over 200,000 online voters, Trinity College Library rightfully holds the top spot.  Founded in 1592, it is Ireland’s oldest library, and its most celebrated space, the Long Room, is a 65-metre sweep of dark oak bookcases stacked with 200,000 of the library’s oldest and rarest volumes. Among its most prized holdings is the Book of Kells, a lavishly decorated 9th-century manuscript of the four Gospels.  Marble busts of great philosophers line the central aisle, the barrel-vaulted ceiling arches overhead, and the entire space carries the particular atmosphere of a room that has witnessed centuries of thought. Often compared to the Hogwarts library, it surpasses all fiction.

Abbey Library of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Third on the 2025 list of the world’s most beautiful libraries, the Abbey Library of St. Gallen forms part of the Abbey of St. Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose origins trace back to the 8th century, making it one of the oldest libraries in existence.  Its Rococo-style hall, designed by architect Peter Thumb and completed between 1758 and 1767, captivates visitors with intricate woodwork, stucco decorations, and a stunning ceiling fresco depicting the pursuit of knowledge.  The library houses approximately 160,000 volumes, including 2,100 manuscripts dating back to the 8th through 15th centuries.  Visitors are required to wear felt overshoes to protect the parquet floors, a small ceremony that makes the experience feel entirely apt.

Sainte-Geneviève Library, Paris, France

Paris has no shortage of beautiful rooms, but the Sainte-Geneviève Library on the Left Bank holds a particular enchantment. Originally a monastic library built in 1838, it is now a university library whose Neo-Greco architecture draws from the Roman style, with stone, arched windows, and lace iron structures reinforcing its curved roofs.  Designed by Henri Labrouste, one of the 19th century’s most visionary architects, its vast reading room is lined with cast-iron columns and floods with natural light, a radical design for its era that influenced libraries and civic buildings across Europe for generations. Students have studied here for nearly two centuries, and the room has changed very little. There is something extraordinary about that continuity.

Starfield Library, Seoul, South Korea

For proof that a library need not be centuries old to stop you in your tracks, look to Seoul. Set inside the Coex Mall, the Starfield Library is among the most photographed libraries in the world, with a towering 13-metre-high wall of books and an escalator that skirts its full height.  Around 70,000 books fill the soaring atrium, open to anyone seeking a quiet moment amid one of the world’s busiest shopping complexes. The juxtaposition is precisely the point: knowledge and commerce can coexist, that a library can be public and spectacular and completely free of charge.

David Sassoon Library, Mumbai, India

The oldest Victorian Gothic structure within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Victorian and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai, the philanthropist David Sassoon Library is also an important landmark of heritage. Built between 1867 and 1870 in the heart of the Kala Ghoda art district of the city, the building features pointed arches, columns adorned with animal motifs, and intricately designed trusses and ceilings crafted from Burma teak wood.  High ceilings and large windows were carefully planned to suit the tropical climate, allowing light and air to circulate through the interior spaces.  Behind the library lies a small, quiet garden courtyard that offers a rare pocket of calm in the middle of the city. Over 150 years on, it remains one of Mumbai’s most beloved rooms.