The "World's Most Beautiful Bookstore"? 📚📚📚 | “世上最美书店”？

Argentina has won the 2022 World Cup, and all the yelling and honking on the street last night reminded me of my visits to the country.

I traveled to different parts of Argentina when living in its neighbor country Chile, and I enjoyed those trips a lot. I'm not a soccer fan, but I am aware that Argentina is also renowned for its literature. Just looking at the number of bookshops in its capital will demonstrate that. Buenos Aires residents have access to one of the highest concentrations of bookshops per person in the world, with the city housing more than 700 bookstores.

In this post, I would like to show you a grand splendid bookshop in Buenos Aires. Located on Santa Fe Avenue in Barrio Norte, the historic building of El Ateneo Grand Splendid was initially inaugurated in 1919 as Teatro Gran Splendid. At that time, Buenos Aires was at the height of its glory as a major port when many European immigrants contributed to a vibrant art and culture scene.

The building has been leased to the El Ateneo publishing house since 2000. As a result, the theatre was transformed into the company's flagship bookstore. There are other smaller El Ateneo bookshops too. As you can see from my photos here, the remaining theatre elements such as the stage curtains, the theatre boxes, the lighting in the auditorium, the carvings, and the frescoes on the high ceiling are all still clearly visible.

I adored its old-world charm as well as the modern touch, such as the art exhibitions on the walls. At the site of the former backstage, there is now a nice café where you can unwind with a great cup of coffee. In the central part, there is a lovely children's book section for the little ones.

After the Boekhandel Dominicanen in the Dutch city of Maastricht, it was named the second most beautiful bookstore in the world by The Guardian in 2008. I have also visited the Dutch Dominican Bookshop which was converted from a church. 11 years later, El Ateneo Grand Splendid was referred to as the "world's most beautiful bookstore" by National Geographic. Both "world's most beautiful" and "the second most beautiful" sound subjective to me, but I can agree that it is indeed a beautiful bookshop.

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阿根廷世界杯夺冠让我想起在那边的旅行见闻。先说说首都布宜诺斯艾利斯，第一印象就是书店很多。随便一条小街，走几步就看到书店。

而数据也证明了这一点，阿根廷光首都就有700多家实体书店，那里的市民人均享有书店量高居世界前列。今天我就来介绍一家在那里看到的知名书店，叫雅典人书店。

书店位于布宜诺斯艾利斯北区的圣菲大道上，曾经是一座建于1919年的大剧院。那时正值城市作为商业大港快速发展的兴盛时期，欧洲移民大量涌入，文化艺术欣欣向荣。2000年开始租给El Ateneo雅典人出版社后，剧院被改建成集团的旗舰书店，城内还有其他连锁的同名书店。从我拍的这些照片里，仍然可以看到之前剧院的包厢、舞台的幕布、照明灯和天花板上的壁画等。

这家书店有着古旧的年代感，同时也不乏当代元素，比如墙上展出的画作和剧院后台辟出的咖啡馆。中央位置还有一块温馨可爱的儿童书区。

2008年，英国的《卫报》将这家书店评为世界上第二美的书店，仅次于荷兰马斯特里赫特的Boekhandel Dominicanen。那家书店我也去过，是由大教堂改建而成的，非常壮观。11年后，《国家地理》杂志又将雅典人书店荣升为“世上最美的书店”。

我觉得“世上最美”或“第二美”未免太主观，难道那些编辑访遍世界所有书店了吗，就算如此，最美的标准又是什么？说自己眼中最美倒还差不多。虽然我对这种并非基于事实数据的所谓世界之最并不认同，但这间书店的确是很美。

^{图文 by Donica，谢谢来访！=)
All content by @itchyfeetdonica. Thank you for visiting!}

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