-
These are heritage buildings. Altering them to preclude insects would involve a ton of paperwork and another ton of planning by an architect so as to not ruin the aesthetics while you do so.
-
You got me off my butt and I’ve looked at pictures of the buildings in question. While the buildings do have regular windows, they also have a bunch of baroque features that provide ingress to bugs and which would be devilishly difficult to close off. Easier to just let the bats in.
Library Joaninia, check out all those thingies up on the roofline. Keeping the squirrels out must be a nightmare, keeping insects out is probably impossible:
National Palace at Mafra. Those bell towers are like bug and bat freeways to the inside of the building. And again note the complex topology of the thingies up along the roofline.
- (ETA) Finally, the bats have been there since before screen windows were invented. By now, the libraries are known for having bats (the Library Joaninia brags about it on their web site), so the bats are (ahem) a feature, not a bug.
