Hey guys! Here is a list of some of the many libraries and bookstores that I absolutely love and wish to go to one day. They are all so beautiful and I think would be great places to visit if you do happen to travel to these cities.
BOOKSTORES
El Ateneo Grand Splendid
Buenos Aires, Argentina
El Ateneo Grand Splendid first opened as a performing arts theatre in 1919. It underwent its first transformation to become a cinema in 1929 before finally converting into a bookstore in the year 2000. The upper floor is used for exhibitions and displays, while the basement is dedicated to children's books.
Livraria Lello & Irmão
Porto, Portugal
The Livraria Lello is a bookstore with an extraordinary historical and architectural value. It first opened in 1906 and has many beautiful architectural features which include: a neo-Gothic facade, stained-glass skylights and a magnificent double staircase. The bookstore has two floors that are connected by an elegant wooden and red velvet staircase standing in the middle of the library, along with a stained-glass window at the top of the shop that fills the store with natural light.
Shakespeare And Company
Paris, France
Shakspeare And Company is the name of two independent bookstores that have existed on Paris's Left Bank. The original opened in 1919 but was later closed in 1941 during the German occupation of Paris, while the second opened in 1951. The bookstore gives off an almost whimsical, lost-in-time aura. It has become a refuge for generations of aspiring writers and artists who turned up unannounced to live there in exchange for helping out around the bookstore. It has now became one of the most famous independent bookstores in the world.
Zhongshuge Bookstore
Hangzhou, China
Zhongshuge Bookstore is comprised of four distinct districts. The first district is made to resemble nature to reflect Hangzhou’s natural beauty. The second district is inspired by Hangzhou’s Qiantang River, which includes a mirror that creates a beautiful arch on the ceiling. The third district resembles an amphitheatre where readers are surrounded by books. Lastly, the fourth district is designed for children which features colorful displays shaped like roller-coasters, merry-go-rounds, trains, pirate ships and hot air balloons.
Cafebrería El Péndulo
Mexico City, Mexico
Cafebrería El Péndulo is one of the prettiest and trendiest buildings in the Polanco. It has a hall that has two walls covered in books from floor to ceiling and is decorated with a mix of natural and artificial trees. There is also spiral stairs and arched windows. There is a cafeteria that offers service with delicious food, as well as live music in afternoons.
Polare Maastricht
Maastricht, Netherlands
Polare Maastricht was the site of a former Dominican church before it underwent a large renovation and restoration in 2005. The restoration work achieved an amalgamation of opposite aesthetics through the preservation of the structure’s original elements, infused with the minimalist style of the interior design. The sacral elements such as the stained-glass windows, frescos, vaults and the incidence of light were kept. This unique bookstore soon opened its doors in 2007.
Libreria Acqua Alta
Venice, Italy
Libreria Acqua Alta is a unique, one-of-a-kind bookstore. It is composed of a number of over-stuffed rooms stacked wall-to-wall with books, magazines, maps, and other ephemera. The bookstore is filled with incredible creativity, with books being stored on gondolas, canoes and bathtub. Some books are even turned into furniture and architecture. Old books that got ruined by water are used to become steps of a staircase that will give a wonderful view over a canal.
Daunt Books
London, United Kingdom
Daunt Books is a chain of bookstores in London and was founded in 1990. The bookstores
have long oak galleries, graceful skylights and a large, walk-in safe is visible near the entrance to the travel gallery, which is where expensive volumes were once stored. Its initial Marylebone branch claims to be the first custom-built bookshop in the world.
LIBRARIES
The National Library of Prague
Prague, Czech Republic
The National Library of Prague (or The Klementinum Library) is an exquisite example of Baroque architecture. It first opened in 1722, is the biggest library in the Czech Republic and houses around 6 million documents. It is filled with a beautiful opulent décor from the floors to the walls to the ceiling. The largest hall in the library features a balcony with a highly ornate, forged railing and stairs, while the Library Hall is decorated in rich golds, mahogany woods, and ceiling frescoes.
George Peabody Library
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
George Peabody Library’s beautiful and cavernous space is described afittingly as a “cathedral of books”. It first opened in 1878 and was seemingly designed to create a space where studying feels monumental. The space was designed with a huge atrium at its center, with each level of the library overlooking the central space. The stack room contains five tiers of ornamental cast-iron balconies and patterned marble floors, which rise dramatically to the skylight sixty-one feet above the floor.
Stuttgart City Library
Stuttgart, Germany
Stuttgart City Library is astonishing and rich in allusion. It is nine-storey high and rises up like a great crystalline cube. The library is a pantheon at the heart of a concentric plan, crowned by an inverted ziggurat reading room, iced with rotating photovoltaic roof panels and encased in a seamless nine-by-nine grid that emits blue light at night.
The Library of Admont Abbey
Admont, Austria
The Library of Admont Abbey is a fairy-tale-esque masterpiece of Baroque and Gothic architecture and is one of Austria’s most precious historical landmarks. It was founded in 1074 and has undergone various reforms throughout its life. It is adorned in intricately painted frescoes, and is not only aesthetically impressive but also houses some of the most important sacred texts in the world.
Bibliothèque Nationale De France
Paris, France
Bibliothèque Nationale De France is the most important library in France and one of the
oldest in the world. It holds over ten million books, three hundred fifty thousands manuscripts as well as a large number of maps and coins. The Library is also one of the best libraries for medieval, modern, and contemporary European literature in the world.
Trinity College Library
Dublin, Ireland
Trinity College Library is one of Ireland’s iconic treasures and a globally recognised cultural landmark. It is renowned throughout the world for its unique buildings and for the strength and distinctiveness of its collections, and it combines heritage and scholarship in its unique dual role as a world-class library and a national cultural institution.
– hồng ân
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