Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura, Rio

The Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura in Rio de Janeiro, completed in 1887, is considered the most beautiful library in the Americas. Its Neo-Manueline facade is covered in intricate Portuguese stonework, and its interior — a three-storey galleried hall rising to an iron and glass skylight — houses the largest collection of Portuguese-language works outside Portugal: 350,000 volumes.