Book Riot, an American website for book lovers, has published an online article nominating Mafra Palace Library in Portugal as “the most awesome in the world”.
It’s all due to the 500 bats (as reported in the Resident in March) that live at the library, coming out at night to hunt bookworms and other insects which would otherwise munch through the vast collection of books.
During the day, the bats return to their lairs in the bookshelves, resting before another night of bug hunting.
The only downside, of course, is that cleaners have to spend a lot of time clearing up bat-poo.
Book Riot, however, sees beyond those passing irritations and enthuses over the library’s architecture, with its “magnificent floor covered with tiles of rose grey and white marble” and its “Rococo-style wooden bookshelves” containing over “35,000 leather-bound volumes”.
Mentioned also are the library’s wacky legends, which talk of “giant rats that go out at night to hunt cats, dogs and people – and also of an underground tunnel linking the library to a small fishing resort”.
It is not the first time a Portuguese library is praised by Book Riot.
Last August, the site featured Porto’s Lello Bookshop as being “the most beautiful bookstore in the world”.
