The State Hall of the Austrian National Library

The Prunksaal, or State Hall, was built for Charles VI between 1723 and 1726 to a design by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and finished by his son. It is close to eighty metres long, walnut shelving from floor to gallery, with roughly two hundred thousand volumes printed between 1501 and 1850 - among them the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy, bound in red, blue and yellow morocco. Daniel Gran painted the dome fresco, repaired later in the century by Maulbertsch. Four Venetian baroque globes by Vincenzo Coronelli stand on the floor of the central oval, two terrestrial and two celestial. The hall is a museum now: the working library sits elsewhere in the building, and these books stay shut.

Highlights

• Prince Eugene's books - thousands of volumes in red, blue and yellow leather filling the central oval.
• The Coronelli globes - four Venetian baroque globes, terrestrial and celestial, more than a metre across.
• Gran's dome fresco - the ceiling above the oval, repaired later in the century by Maulbertsch.
• The walnut galleries - shelving up to the upper walkway, reached by spiral stairs hidden behind the cases.

When to go

Open all year, usually from ten, with one late evening a week; it closes on Mondays outside the summer months. Morning light through the tall windows is the best of it, and winter is the quietest time. The hall also hosts exhibitions, which put display cases along the floor and change what you can see.

Practical notes

It is one room. Forty minutes covers it unless you sit and look properly, and the ticket is not cheap for that. Nothing can be taken off the shelves, and the light is deliberately low to protect the bindings, which frustrates photographers. Exhibition cases in the middle sometimes break the long view down the hall.

Nearby

The Hofburg, the Albertina and the Augustinian church are immediately outside the door.