Atlas Obscura
Mount Angel Abbey Library in Benedict, Oregon
In the 1960s, Mount Angel Abbey, a Catholic monastery of Benedictine monks, approached the famous Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto to design a new library building for the abbey. The result, opened in 1970, is a Modernist beauty, filled with natural lighting and original Aalto-designed furniture in a fan-shaped layout. The building is one of only four in the U.S. designed by the proli…