Places
Manuel Varzim
Tours
Sat, every 30 minutes, Livraria Lello booksellers / Sat 9pm, Architect António Choupina (visit to the Bookshop Expansion project, designed by Álvaro Siza)
Maximum 25 people per visit
No reservation required; first-come, first-served
No wheelchair access
Photography allowed
Description
The Livraria Lello building, founded in 1906, is today one of Porto’s most privileged shopping centres and one of the most emblematic neo-Gothic style buildings in Portugal. The space was designed by architect Francisco Xavier Esteves (his signature can be seen at the base of the iconic staircase in the centre of the space, one of the city’s pioneering concrete interventions), and has elements by others, such as the figures of Art and Science on the Bookshop’s façade by Joseph Bielmann and the unmistakable 95-panel stained glass window by Dutchman Samuel Van Krieken, which floods the entire interior with light. Living up to the designation of Gothic as the ‘architecture of light’, Lello is also like a Gothic cathedral of knowledge, illuminating its users and visitors. (Graça Correia e Joel Cleto, OHP’22)
Location
Rua das Carmelitas, 144
Directions: Google Maps / Apple Maps
Public Transport
Subway: Line D - Aliados
Bus: STCP 200, 201, 207, 208, 300, 302, 305, 501,703 – Guilherme G Fernandes