Bookshops of the World – Livraria Lello

Livraria Lello

Billed as ‘the most beautiful bookshop in the world’, they’re not wrong. This is a store that is famous across the world for being the inspiration behind the stairs at Hogwarts of Harry Potter fame. JK Rowling lived and taught English in Porto and this is the shop she would spend a lot of time in and have a coffee apparently! No such coffee shop now but a queue of mammoth proportions every day and ticketed entry!

Livraria Lello times (c)TheBookTrail

There are themed displays  – when I was there, the theme was the celebration of The Little Prince. Book purchased in French of a special edition, there was a room dedicated to the story and its history.

The Little Prince (c) The BookTrail

Of course the main draw is Jk Rowling and Harry Potter. You can buy every book in three languages and in several editions too. Glorious to see so many books of the series in one place. On gothic shelves like you would imagine them being stored at Hogwarts itself.

Harry Potter (c) The BookTrail

It’s lovely to see such a large area dedicated to the books that made the store so famous. Some very special collectors editions as well.

And for the main event….

The iconic staircase (c) The BookTrail

The staircase is iconic – and you can see how this became the staircases of Hogwarts school!

A room on the second floor dedicated to the Nobel Prize for literature. So something for everyone and in four languages – French, Spanish Portuguese, and English.