“These Portuguese Libraries Are Infested With Bats — and They Like It That Way”

From Travel and Leisure:

At the University of Coimbra in central Portugal, there are bats in the biblioteca. They swoop through the stacks, winging over a first-edition of Dionysius of Halicarnassus’s “Roman Antiquities” and past a 15th-century book of hours and Homer’s “Opera Omnia” — snapping up bugs as they go.

It’s one of two 18th-century Portuguese libraries where bats are welcome guests, allowed to stay for the bug-eating — and, by extension, manuscript-preserving — services they provide. And visitors to Portugal can see them for themselves.

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See Also: University of Coimbra Library English Language Website and Library History

See Also: University of Coimbra Digital Collections

See Also: University of Coimbra World Heritage (Images and Info)