El Ateneo

Wednesday, April 3

When we decided to fly to Buenos Aires a few weeks earlier, one of the first places I came across while researching Buenos Aires online was the "El Ateneo Grand Splendid." It's a former theater that's now a hybrid of a bookstore and a café.

Buenos Aires is home to one great bookstore after another, but the "Ateneo Grand Splendid" is arguably the city's most famous bookstore. Last weekend, we finally had the time to check out this city landmark, and drove there. The building was originally built as a theater and inaugurated in 1919. Over time, the building served as a theater and a concert venue, before being converted into a cinema. A few years later, the building was renovated again and eventually converted into a bookstore. The former theater stage was converted into a café, and today, the café's seating area and all tables and chairs are on the stage. The many cinema seats have been replaced by almost as many bookshelves, and today you can freely stroll through the theater building, sip coffee on the stage, and browse the bookshelves. The bookstore spans several floors, and the theater's basement is also part of the bookstore. This section is reached via a modern escalator that takes you down one floor from the main auditorium.

Despite the extensive renovations (and the modern escalator) in the middle of the building, the former theater still retains its original charm and is a very special place in Buenos Aires. We spent our afternoon at the "Ateneo Grand Splendid" and had probably never spent as long in a bookstore before as we did that day.