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Librería Lello e Irmao

Librería Chardron / Bookstore Lello e Irmao

1906 -
ESTEVES, Francisco Xavier

Oporto
Portugal

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The author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling lived in Porto for several years, and this bookstore served as inspiration for the Hogwarts stairs in the books that this author published. This is the main reason why this bookstore became known worldwide, in a way it is thanks to it that we can continue enjoying the bookstore since for economic reasons they were going to close it, thanks to the traffic of people that the writer directed today. More than a bookstore, it is a theme park for fans of the saga, a storybook setting.

It is a bookstore located in the historic center of the city of Porto, Portugal. It is located on Rua das Carmelitas just in front of the Clérigos Tower. It is one of the most emblematic buildings of the Portuense neo-Gothic, standing out strongly in the surrounding urban landscape.

Before entering, the bookstore already surprises us with its spectacular neo-Gothic style façade and certain modernist overtones. We observe on this façade a large depressed arch and above it a triple window, and on both sides of it, two figures painted on the wall of the building, one represents Art and the other represents Science, both are the work of the author Jose Bielman. A cut-out sign tops the windows, ending the façade in three pillars topped by spiers, with arched openings in a neo-Gothic style. The decoration is complemented by plant motifs, geometric shapes and the designation “Lello e Irmão”, under the windows.

Inside, the decoration transports us to 100 years ago, when the library was built. The union of enormous wooden shelves full of books that rise from our feet to the ceiling, covering the two floors of the library, the painted plaster walls imitating wood, a huge stained glass window located on the ceiling that projects natural light with a monogram and the motto of the bookstore: “Decus in Labore” (pride in work) and a large ornamental staircase, a beautiful work of joinery, which gives access to the upper floor carved in wood and with a forked shape in two directions halfway up the itself, which suggests a Borgesian labyrinth full of adventures, make a visit to this bookstore unforgettable.

There are busts that “decorate” the bookstore, which is already quite ornate, the work of the sculptor Romao Júnior, of prominent names in Portuguese literature. There we find Eça de Queiroz, Camilo Castelo Branco, Antero de Quental, Tomás Ribeiro, Guerra Junquiero... On the ground there are still the rails of the wagons that were used to transport books from one shelf to another.

By virtue of its historical and artistic value, the bookstore has been recognized as one of the most beautiful in the world by various personalities and entities.

Maria Eugenia TEIXEIRA

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