The Lello & Irmão Bookstore was reclassified “as a property of national interest, assigning it the designation of national monument,” reads the statement from the Council of Ministers.

The same text states that “the reinforcement of its heritage recognition” is justified by the excellence in the provision of cultural services, the defence of the establishment’s identity, and the international projection of the image associated with the bookstore.”

On 13 January, the 120th anniversary of this historic Porto bookstore, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro stated that the reclassification of the Lello & Irmão Bookstore building would be “definitively assumed” in “the letter of the law.”

The process of reclassifying the Livraria Lello building, located in the centre of Porto, began in 2019, six years after it was classified as a Monument of Public Interest.

According to the chronology available in the database of the public institute Cultural Heritage, in 2019, Livraria Lello itself requested reclassification as a National Monument, a request that was submitted to the then Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage three months later and received the agreement of the respective section of the National Council for Culture and, consequently, of the then Director-General for Cultural Heritage, in 2021.

In January 2022, the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage published in the Official Gazette an announcement of a proposal to the supervisory authority to reclassify the bookstore as a National Monument, which is only now being implemented.

Located in the Union of Parishes of Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau and Vitória, and considered "one of the most beautiful in the world," as described in the Cultural Heritage directory, Livraria Lello was inaugurated in Porto in 1906, in an establishment "inheriting the tradition of the Chardron bookstore."

The neo-Gothic façade is pierced, on the ground floor, by a large Tudor arch, encompassing the central door and the side windows, and above which runs the inscription Lello e Irmão (Lello and Brother).

In the upper register, a triple window stands out, flanked by two figures representing Art and Science. The façade as a whole is punctuated by vegetal and geometric decoration of a medieval character, lace-like parapets, and pinnacles framing a pointed arch.

Inside, pointed arches rest on pillars sculpted with busts of writers such as Antero de Quental, Eça de Queiroz, Camilo Castelo Branco, Teófilo Braga, Tomás Ribeiro, and Guerra Junqueiro, under lace-like canopies.

“The Lello & Irmão Bookstore stands as one of the most important buildings of Portuguese eclectic architecture, incorporating unparalleled woodwork and stained glass in the country. Its architectural and artistic value is further enhanced by the cultural importance it has continuously assumed over time, as well as its excellent state of conservation,” concludes the description.