The Lisbon Index

Vol. I — Independent bookshops

A city
catalogued
slowly.

Eight bookshops that the city would be measurably poorer without. Visited in person, written up by a reader, kept short and specific.

This is the first volume of an index of Lisbon's small institutions — places that persist because people choose to persist in running them. Corrections are welcome; so are gaps we have missed.

On the map

Pins open each entry

The index

8 entries

  1. 01

    Ler Devagar

    A former printing press turned reading room; strong on art, architecture, and the Portuguese literary new wave.

    Alcântara

    Est. 1999

  2. 02

    Livraria Ferin

    The oldest working bookshop in Lisbon. Portuguese and French literature, scholarly history, and a serious children's section.

    Chiado

    Est. 1840

  3. 03

    Poesia Incompleta

    Poetry. Only poetry. Lusophone, translated, and the occasional surprise.

    Príncipe Real

    Est. 2015

  4. 04

    Palavra de Viajante

    Travel writing, maps, cartography. The best collection of out-of-print atlases south of Oxford.

    Santos

    Est. 2004

  5. 05

    Snob

    A bar and a bookshop, in that order. New fiction, music books, and the longest wine list of any bookshop in the country.

    Bairro Alto

    Est. 2018

  6. 06

    Livraria Sá da Costa

    Scholarly and antiquarian. Portuguese history, philosophy, used books, the kind of shop you walk out of carrying a 1942 edition of someone you'd never heard of.

    Chiado

    Est. 1912

  7. 07

    Tigre de Papel

    An anarchist and radical-publishing bookshop. Translated theory, Portuguese labour history, zines, and a reliably contrarian recommendation shelf.

    Anjos

    Est. 2017

  8. 08

    Menina e Moça

    A late-night bookshop-bar on the Pink Street. Fiction, feminist publishing, record stock, and a steady late-evening crowd.

    Cais do Sodré

    Est. 2019