Four of the best bookshops in Lisbon
Book-lovers assemble: Portugal’s capital, with its faded glamour and otherworldly amount of sunshine, has some of the most charming bookshops you’ll ever frequent, with stiff competition for the title of ‘best bookshop in Lisbon.’ In fact, the whole city is something of a writer’s dream, with many a shaded bench and impressive view of trees and red-roofed buildings to enjoy with a book in hand.
The best bookshops in Lisbon are the ones that double up as something else - a bar, a cafe, a cultural space, and the winding streets of the capital city have served as inspiration for many a writer and thinker, including Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese critic, philosopher and poet whose works only became appreciated after his death in 1935, and are now viewed as modernist classics. His statue can be found in Chiado, Lisbon’s main shopping district, in front of the famous Café Brasileira, a popular coffeeshop hangout for writers, ever since it first opened in 1905.
Neighbouring city, Porto, is also steeped in literary magic and is something of a book-lovers paradise, with the ornate Livraria Lello library in the city centre said to have served as the inspiration for J,K.Rowling when she was creating Hogwarts School.
Here are four of the best bookshops in Lisbon.
Livraria-Bar Menina e Moça
Situated on Pink Street, one of Lisbon’s party hotspots, you might be forgiven for walking past Menina e Moça at night and thinking it’s something else entirely, when revellers are often spilling out into the street, cocktail-in-hand. But this cute bookshop also doubles up as a bar and boasts a small live music area at the back. It’s colourful, with poetry hand-scribbled onto the walls and filled with a mix of English and Portuguese books for sale.
Livraria Bertrand
Ever wondered where the oldest bookshop in the world is situated? Well it’s in Lisbon, of course. Livraria Bertrand even has the Guinness World Record displayed in the window, as proof for all the doubters.Having opened its doors in 1732, this grand, elegant store in the central Chiado area boasts large open floors and low wooden archways into which you can lose yourself in a mixture of Spanish, French, Portuguese and English titles. Easily deserving of the title of one of the best bookshops in Lisbon.
Ler Devagar
Meaning ‘read slowly’ in Portuguese, a list covering the best bookshops in Lisbon wouldn’t be complete without this eye-catching offering. With two-storeys of books that are piled up to the ceiling and a giant bicycle sculpture suspended above the entrance, it’s no wonder Ler Devagar has consistently been named one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world by outlets like the New York Times. The spot also boasts a record store and cafe, and also serves as a cultural event space. Worth a wonder, even if you aren’t a bookworm.
Bivar bookshop
Bookshop Bivar is currently the only English-language bookshop in the whole of the city so of course we had to include it when rounding up the best bookshops in Lisbon. No, but it is a lovely space, too. It’s a small and cosy shop right shop around 10 minutes from the centre of the city via subway with a good selection of secondhand book options in both fiction & non-fiction and close to many great co-working spots.
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