Joanina Library
Baroque university library of 1728, its gilded halls guarded by a resident colony of bats.
The Joanina Library was built between 1717 and 1728 at the western edge of the University of Coimbra's Paço das Escolas, paid for by King João V, whose name it carries. Behind a monumental stone portal bearing the royal arms, three barrel-vaulted halls open one into the next, divided by gilded arches. Walls more than two metres thick and heavy oak doors hold the temperature and humidity steady, and a resident colony of bats feeds at night on insects that would otherwise attack the books.
The shelving is worked in exotic woods and lacquered in green, red and gold with chinoiserie motifs, while the ceilings carry trompe-l'oeil paintings by António Simões Ribeiro and Vicente Nunes. Some 60,000 volumes, mostly printed between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, are arranged by subject. Below the main floor lie an intermediate storey and the medieval Academic Prison. The library belongs to the University of Coimbra, Alta and Sofia, inscribed by UNESCO in 2013.
Highlights
- Three gilded baroque halls completed in 1728 for King João V
- Chinoiserie lacquered shelving in green, red and gold
- A resident bat colony that keeps insects away from the books
- The medieval Academic Prison in the storeys beneath
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