El Ateneo Grand Splendid - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Posted by: 
Torgut
S 34° 35.755 W 058° 23.665
21H E 372130 N 6170883
A bookstore in a former theater in the center of Buenos Aires
Waymark Code: WM12CE3
Location: Argentina
Date Posted: 04/27/2020
Views: 1
In 2008 The Guardian pointed this bookstore as the second most beautiful in the world. In 2019 it was defined by National Geographic as "the world's most beautiful bookstore.
It's indeed a magnificent thing. The facilities were a classic theater, then used as cinema, and now adapted to the needs of a bookstore. The former stage is a cafe and there are plenty of tables and chairs for reading. An amazing selection of books in a large space.
From Wikipedia:
(
visit link)
"Situated on Santa Fe Avenue in Barrio Norte,[3] the building was designed by architects Peró and Torres Armengol[4] for impresario Max Glücksmann (1875-1946), and opened as a theatre called Teatro Gran Splendid in May 1919.[5] The eclecticist building features ceiling frescoes painted by the Italian artist Nazareno Orlandi and caryatids sculpted by Troiano Troiani,[4] whose work also graces the cornice along the Palacio de la Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.
The theatre had a seating capacity of 1,050, and staged a variety of performances, including appearances by the tango artists Carlos Gardel, Francisco Canaro, Roberto Firpo and Ignacio Corsini. Glücksmann started his own radio station in 1924 (Radio Splendid), which broadcast from the building where his recording company, Nacional Odeón, made some of the early recordings of the great tango singers of the day. In the late twenties the theatre was converted into a cinema, and in 1929 showed the first sound films presented in Argentina."