Austrian National Library

The Austrian National Library is Austria’s central national library, located in the Hofburg palace complex in central Vienna and serving as the country’s largest library.

The complex is best known for its 18th-century Baroque State Hall, a long vaulted reading room with ornate ceiling paintings and historic bookcases. The library also houses the Globe Museum and specialized collections such as the Papyrus Collection and historic maps and manuscripts, used by researchers and shown in museum displays.

The library developed from the Habsburg imperial collections and became Austria’s national repository for books, manuscripts and archival material as political control of the Habsburg collections shifted in the 19th and 20th centuries. Collections have been expanded, catalogued and made publicly accessible over successive centuries.

Sited in the Hofburg in Vienna’s Innere Stadt, the library sits near Heldenplatz and other central landmarks in Vienna; it is inside the city rather than outside in a separate district.

• Visiting the State Hall: Access to the State Hall is often by timed entry or guided tour; check opening times in advance.
• Access restrictions: Several specialized museums and reading rooms lie behind the public galleries and require separate access for researchers.

What to See #

• Prunksaal (State Hall): The library's 18th-century Baroque State Hall (Prunksaal) is the most seen space, a long vaulted reading room with painted ceilings and rows of historic bookcases.
• Globe Museum: A specialized museum devoted to terrestrial and celestial globes; it holds historic globes and models and is the only museum dedicated specifically to globes within the library complex.
• Papyrus Collection: An archival and research collection of ancient papyri and other manuscript materials held for study and conservation within the national collections.