It's amazing how you learn so much just by participating on this forum -- who knew that bats are the best bug patrol for keeping bugs out of books?!
I have been to Mafra and frankly the monastery itself left me cold. It is so severe and imposing and unwelcoming, I thought. But the library, wow. Maybe some of the unused portion of the monastery could become an albergue. That certainly would increase its human warmth.
I agree about the forum Laurie, this post caused me to go search for images of the world's most beautiful libraries. This is certainly one, but some of the others are also stunning. Life is too short.
So, I have a question for fans of Portugal: where does this apparent love for books and libraries come from? These librairies have no equals that I know of in the world , so I am curious. You didn't see libraries like these in other monarchies, did you? Russia, France, nope... Furniture, paintings yes, but books?
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