Lovely Outliers

One of the highlights of my wee trip to Prague included visiting a library. Yeah – nerd vibes through and through.

This library enthusiasm is warranted, as you should see the Klementinum library. It was established by the Jesuits in 1556, and the large complex was built to house 200,000 printed works and a meteorological observation centre. Daily meteorological data has been collected daily since 1775, the longest continuous series of meteorological data in Europe. Over the centuries, many great thinkers browsed these shelves, including lectures by Albert Einstein and performances by Mozart.

I got to visit in 2024 with my fellow book nerd Rachael. You can only view the library on a guided tour, so I strongly recommend advance booking (e.g. skip the line tickets several days in advance).

Logistics: The tour (2024) was 380 Kč  (approx €13 or £12.50). If possible, book your tickets several days in advance (e.g.  Get your guide has skip the line  tickets). If you are not a ble to get advance tickets, your only option is to wait in line on the day of and hope you will be able to snag a spot on the tour. The first tours of the day are mostly sold out by skip-the-line pre-booked tickets, so getting in line early is the only way to score coveted morning spots.As I desperately wanted to go but we only had time in the morning of our last day in Prague, I arrived at 7:30, keenly first in line for the library to open at 9. If you have more flexibility, showing up by 8:30 should be fine, but by 8:50, you can expect to have at least 50 people ahead of you in line.

Thankfully, my mega-nerd eagerness scored us spots to view the glorious library.

She is a delicate lady, so visitors are only able to peer into the library from the entrance, as the room is carefully climate controlled to protect the delicate manuscripts from disturbance. Even from the threshold, you can see why the Klementinum is so famous, consistently listed as one of the most beautiful libraries in the world: ornate oak carvings, domed painted ceilings, enormous antique globes, and endless rows of leather bound books.

It is a bit of a rush, so pardon the blurry pics of VERY excited book nerds.

The tour includes views of this iconic palace of books, information about the Klementinum complex, and information about the astronomical history, including a stop in the meridian hall and a trip up the spiral staircase view the “city of spires” from the top of the  meteorological tower. They have the longest continuously monitored dataset of weather in the world, and in case you were wondering, the hottest July 3rd recorded in Prague since 1784 was in 1864 (https://www.chmi.cz/historicka-data/pocasi/praha-klementinum?l=en for fun historic weather data).