Trinity College Dublin, Collegiate university in Dublin, Ireland

Trinity College Dublin is Ireland's oldest university, founded in 1592, set on a 190,000 m² campus on College Green opposite the former Irish Parliament. Its buildings ring several squares, among them Parliament Square with the 1798 chapel by William Chambers and the 1853 Campanile by Charles Lanyon, a 30-metre bell tower at the campus centre. The Old Library, built from 1732, holds the Long Room, a hall nearly 65 metres long.

Queen Elizabeth I of England founded the university in 1592 on the site of a former Augustinian priory as Ireland's first higher education institution. The library received the right to claim a copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland, expanding the collection over the centuries.

The Library preserves the Book of Kells, an eighth-century manuscript with detailed illustrations of the four Christian gospels. Visitors view the opened pages in a dimmed room where lighting brings out the colors and ornaments of the ancient parchments.

The main entrance opens onto College Green, opposite the former Irish Parliament building, and the campus lies in the city centre. The Campanile, a 30-metre bell tower by Sir Charles Lanyon built in 1853, marks the middle of the grounds. Tradition holds that a student who crosses beneath it while the bell rings will fail the examination.

The university holds agreements with Oxford and Cambridge that allow graduates from these institutions to receive equivalent degrees without additional examinations. The Long Room Library stretches 65 meters and holds over 200,000 of the oldest volumes in the collection on wooden shelves beneath vaulted ceilings.