🇨🇿 Prague
Strahov Monastery Library
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The Premonstratensian monks who run Strahov have been here since 1143 — almost 900 years of continuously collecting books, including manuscripts older than the abbey itself.
You can't walk into the halls themselves — you photograph them from the doorways — but the view is still one of Prague's great hits: 16th-century globes, painted ceilings, walnut shelving, and an attached cabinet of curiosities full of narwhal tusks and stuffed exotica. Combine with a short walk over to the Loreta sanctuary and you've got a quiet half-morning above the tourist crush of the castle.