It’s hard to believe it’s been over two years since we profiled our first Beautiful Bookstore. What was meant to be a one-time feature of what we proposed could be “Book Heaven,” has turned into a popular competition as readers...
Currently in the midst of their tenth-anniversary celebrations, Atlantis Books in Santorini, Greece is an independent bookshop founded by a group of friends from Cyprus, England and the United States. This island treasure is everything you would expect from a...
A bookstore can be beautiful for more than just aesthetic reasons. While many contenders in our Beautiful Bookstores series feature marble floors or miraculous glass ceilings, they don’t necessarily have the heart and history that a smaller shop may. One commenter...
On a recent Beautiful Bookstores post, a reader suggested that we profile Akateeminen Kirjakauppa (“The Academic Bookstore”) in Stockmann, Helsinki as a contender. And what a great recommendation that was! This bookstore is filled with upwards of 450,000 books in a...
Currently hosting the 2014 Berlinale Film Festival, the city of Berlin is a cultural hotspot the whole year round. Whether Berlin is your hometown or you’re just visiting, this German city’s famous “under the rails” bookstore, Bücherbogen, is not to...
Celebrated as the “most magnificent bookstore in Canada, possibly North America” by journalist Allen Fotheringham (and many others!), Munro’s Books in Victoria, British Columbia is as culturally significant as it is beautiful. Founded in 1963 by Jim Munro and his first...
In a September edition of Beautiful Bookstores we asked the question, “Is Polare Maastricht the most beautiful bookstore in the world?” While many readers agreed that Polare Maastricht is indeed a gorgeous building, one commenter suggested that another Dutch church-turned-bookstore...
The debate over the most beautiful bookstore continues, as a new contender has been long-listed. The latest entry, Livraria Lello & Irmão located in Porto, Portugal, features a façade decorated in the Art Nouveau style with Neo-Gothic elements. The façade of...
In May we featured El Ateneo, a theatre-turned-bookstore in Buenos Aires, Argentina, suggesting that it may be the most beautiful bookstore in the world. One of our readers, Petra, thinks that the Polare Maastricht bookstore in the Netherlands has it...
Click to Enlarge (Via Travel 365) Looks like we have a new contender for the most beautiful bookstore in the world! The above photo depicts the El Ateneo, a downtown Buenos Aires theater that was converted into a bookstore! Amazingly the store...
