Admont Abbey Library

The library hall of Admont Abbey in Styria, Austria, looking down its length toward the central dome. The abbey calls this the largest monastic library hall in the world: 70 meters long and 14 wide, rising to almost 13 meters under the dome. Josef Hueber planned it in the 1760s and the work was probably finished in 1773. The white and gold shelving lets the ceiling frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte do the talking, and the checkered floor pulls the eye straight down the hall.