…and the One That is Better
I was sitting around my hostel talking to a fellow traveler, when I asked her if she had heard of the world’s oldest bookstore. Indeed she knew of it, already visited it, and then proceeded to tell me about another one. She couldn’t remember the name of it, but said it was it was an incredible store, filled with old books, leather bound books, and antiques. Hearing this, and then being massively disappointed with Bertrand, I had to try and find it.
After my trip to Bertrand, I continued my day walking around the city, visiting a museum and church, eating some incredible food along the way. As night approached, I decided to head home and backtracked my way towards the hostel, which took me back through the Praça Luís de Camões square from earlier. I was walking along when the lit up interior of the Café A Brasileira caught my attention. I took a minute or two to admire it, and then continued my walk when I saw some things that looked like antiques sitting in the window. As I inched closer, it became quickly apparent that his was the bookstore my fellow, weary traveler was telling me about.
Turns out she was talking about Livraria Sá da Costa, one of the coolest bookstores I’ve ever stepped in (not that that’s many, but hey). The funny part? The place is like 100 frigging feet from Bertrand’s! Livraria Sá da Costa has a vastly different vibe about it than Bertrand or any other corporate bookstore you’ve visited, and you immediately see all the unique stuff they have to offer. Straight ahead against the back wall you’ll see some antiques. Turn to the left and you’ll see some old, leather bound books scattered throughout the bookshelves, and to the right some more books and even a large piece of historical parchment with writing on it.
As you make your way through the shop, tables hold unique and varied pieces of literature and historical volumes. It’s not uncommon to pick something up from the early 1800’s or very early 1900’s sitting on one of these tables, and you can’t help but get a rush when see it for the first time, even if you can’t understand a damn word because it’s all in Portuguese.
The store is surprising big, as the archways lead you further back into the bookstore, walking you past more tables and bookshelves fulled of vintage and historical books. Even more awesome are the glass cases around the store. This is where the crème de la crème of the store is kept. In here, you’ll find historical pieces of literature, handwritten autobiographies, books covering Holy Roman Empire Law from the 17th Century, and more. Incredibly, the majority of everything in these cases seems to be dated earlier than the 20th century, with a good many of them from even before the 18th/19th Century. Seriously, stuff like this you’d expect to be in private collections or in museums, and here you can just waltz in and buy one. Incredible.
Do yourself a favor and go check out Livraria Sá da Costa. You’ll more than likely be in the Chiado area anyways, as it’s just in the heart of downtown Lisbon where tourists typically stay, and it’s located in a nice area to go for a walk.
This entry was posted in Bookstore, Europe, Portugal