Livraria Lello

Livraria Lello is the bookshop that became a pilgrimage. It opened in 1906 in a purpose-built building on Rua das Carmelitas, a few steps from the Clérigos Tower, for the brothers José and António Lello, and it still sells books today. The facade is a narrow neo-Gothic composition in white with painted figures, but it is the interior that stops people in their tracks: walls of dark carved shelving rising to a gallery, plaster ceilings painted to imitate wood, and at the centre a sinuous double staircase, painted a deep crimson, that forks and curls up to the upper floor as if it were a sculpture rather than a way upstairs. Overhead, a large stained-glass skylight bears the motto Decus in Labore, dignity in work. Its fame exploded in the twenty-first century, partly because J.K. Rowling lived in Porto in the early 1990s and fans linked the shop with Hogwarts; Rowling herself has said she never visited, but the legend stuck, and the queues began. To manage the crowds, the shop introduced paid entry in the form of a ticket-voucher, and that is still the rule: you need a ticket for a timed slot to enter, even if you only want to buy books, and the value of the voucher is deducted from the price of a book bought on the day. Tickets are sold online in advance and on your phone at the door, they are valid for up to an hour after the time booked, children up to three go free with proof of age, and they are non-refundable, though you can reschedule once online at least a day ahead.

What you are actually seeing: a building that is part bookshop, part Art Nouveau stage set, designed by the engineer Francisco Xavier Esteves at a time when Porto's bourgeoisie wanted grand cultural spaces. The staircase, the shop's emblem, is made of reinforced concrete disguised with paint and carving, an innovative technique for its day. Look for the small rail tracks set in the floor, once used for a cart that moved books around the shop, and for the painted busts of Portuguese writers on the pillars. Today the shop leans into its own celebrity, with special editions, collectors' items and exhibitions, and it has expanded its cultural activities into a foundation based in the monastery of Leça do Balio, outside the city, which runs separate visits.

How to visit well: book the first slot of the day online, because the shop is small and the experience changes completely when it is full. It opens daily from morning to early evening, except on 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 May, 24 June and 25 December. Expect a short queue even with a ticket, a security check and a crowded staircase; photographs are allowed, but the famous empty-staircase shot is only realistic at opening. Plan to spend the voucher: the shop sells beautiful editions of classics in many languages, and choosing one makes the visit feel like a purchase rather than an admission fee. If you can only manage a later slot, go in the final hour, when tour groups have thinned.

Is it worth it? If you love books, architecture or simply beautiful interiors, yes, especially when you treat the ticket as a book token. If you dislike crowds, consider the view from the doorway and a different literary stop instead. Pair the visit with the Clérigos Tower directly up the street, the Carmo and Carmelitas churches with their tiled side wall around the corner, and a coffee in the gardens at Praça de Lisboa, a green roof over a shopping arcade facing the shop.