Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) | Richelieu

This guide to the Richelieu reading room of the Bibliothèque nationale de France follows architect Henri Labrouste, who spent fourteen years on a commission from Napoleon III starting in 1854 to reinvent what a French library could feel like. It traces the small comforts he built into the room when it opened in 1868, from hot-water pipes under the tables to pneumatic tubes that delivered books straight to a reader's desk, and touches on the 1537 law that still sends a copy of every book printed in France here. Look up at the nine terracotta domes resting on those slender iron columns before you take a seat.