Two things immediately hit those who arrive at the Livraria Lello in Portugal's Porto. One is the bouncer. He has a genial half-smile pasted on his lips, and is courteously listening to people whose tickets he is checking. But nothing can disguise the fact that he is a bouncer, probably the very first bouncer in all the world to grace the doorstep of a bookstore.
Livraria Lello, perhaps the world’s most beautiful bookstore, first opened in 1906. It’s packed into the compact confines of a neo-Gothic building that looks quite commonplace on the outside but which has the most gorgeous interiors ever. And the reader, the bookshop junkie, or the gawking tourist, none of them can enter the hallowed hall of this Livraria without having purchased a ticket online. The voucher system, started in 2015 to turn tourists into readers, costs almost 16 euros but is entirely deductible against the purchase of books. But first one has to gape. And there's much to gape at.
The interiors of the bookstore at No. 144, Rua Das Carmelitas, are indeed lovely. The soft gleam of wood is all around: the wainscoting, the flooring, the trellis patterns everywhere, the bookshelves. A stunning long panel of stained glass serves as a portion of the roof. The Insta-worthy piece de resistance is the sumptuous staircase with blood-red stairs. Upstairs, posters adorn the upper reaches of the wall; one lists the ‘Could Haves’ for the Nobel Prize in Literature and features names Tolkien, Maugham, Proust, as well as JK Rowling, Lewis Carroll, and Harper Lee.
If the bouncer is the first check, the crowds inside are the second. This is the shoulder season in Portugal but one wouldn’t believe it from the mad crush inside the store. Is this crowd made up of gawpers or book-lovers? The long snaking queues in front of the billing counter makes something clear: people are gawping, but they are also buying.
The English shelves have all the current bestsellers from Richard Osman to Dan Brown, and Colleen Hoover. There are children galore in the Livraria, and almost all hold a Harry Potter book in their hands. This is due to the persisting urban legend that JKR, who lived in Portugal for a while, was inspired by the ornate interiors of this Livraria, something the author has stoutly denied.
Livraria got its tagline in 2006 when the Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas referred to it as “the prettiest bookstore in the world”. The bookstore dedicates Gemma exclusively to rare books, manuscripts, first editions, and luxury books. The iconic bookstore honors José Saramago with a dedicated room to his name, stocking special edition books of the only Portuguese-language writer who has so far won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In the upper windows on the left are the ‘O Rosto do Porto’ that celebrates Portugal’s second city through the faces of its people, celebrities as well as common citizens. Just a few steps away, the newly launched Le Petit Prince room, with its “Little Prince"-themed art installation celebrates Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's magical book, The Little Prince. The must see attraction also sells various related items, including a special 80th-anniversary edition of the book.
Getting lost in the opulence and the nostalgic charm of this bookstore is not unusual. One is gently encouraged not to stay too long in the Livraria, a strange request coming from a bookstore. There is no doubt that the Livraria Lello is one opulent store; the moot question though, is whether it is doing roaring business because of its spectacular interiors or its well-curated collection of reading material. Whatever it might be, it seems to be a win for readers, gawpers and the bookstore.
