Photo of the Week: The Gorgeous Livraria Lello

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Kristin

Livraria Lello -- the most beautiful bookstore I've ever set foot in.

You know when every guide written about Porto talks about a bookstore that it has to be something special, and Livraria Lello certainly is. I love books and can browse through bookstores and libraries for hours, but on walking into Lello, they certainly weren’t what caught my eye. Instead, I stared at the intricate woodwork all around me, the unique design of the stairway, and the stained glass far above. Yes, there was stained glass in a bookstore! It’s no wonder that JK Rowling used to find refuge here as she wrote away the hours with a coffee in the back corner.

Unfortunately, the bookstore is no longer a refuge for people that want to write or even browse their books in peace. A constant stream of visitors — myself included — wander through the bookstore gawking at its beauty before moving on. I can see how this would be very frustrating to the owners, who are getting the visitors without the sales (even though there were quite a few English & French books as well as a wide selection of Portuguese ones). However, we found that the staff didn’t really help the situation. Every time someone so much as touched a camera, they yelled “NO PHOTOS!” at everyone in the general Porto region that could possibly have heard. As you can tell from this post, I still took a few, but I think they would have been much better off charging €1 at the door and then letting people take as many photos as they wanted. It certainly would have made the place a bit quieter.

That said, I don’t think the photos do justice to the real thing. This place was one of the more stunning examples of architecture that I’ve seen. I’m sure that if I went back to Porto, I would go back for another (longer) visit.

Here are a few other sneaky photos that they didn’t catch me taking:

Posted under Photo of the Week, Photography, Portugal with the tags architecture, bookstore, porto

About Kristin
I'm Kristin, a Texan born to an American father and English mother. I've been living in Australia since 2008. My first plane flight was when I was three weeks old and I've been hooked ever since. I never feel quite right unless I have a plane ticket (to anywhere, whether it's Sydney or Sweden) booked in my name. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
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2 Responses to Photo of the Week: The Gorgeous Livraria Lello

Deborah September 17, 2012 at 10:28 pm Reply

Wow! Amazing! Better for sightseeing than book-buying maybe?!
- Kristin October 2, 2012 at 10:20 pm Reply
  
  Ooh, don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have browsed through the books there, since I did see that they had some English books (and some English-Portuguese dictionaries that may have been useful). But you’re probably right — if I had the choice, I would spend the time gawking at the architecture because I can look at books in Dymocks when I get home!