“The Athenaeum has retained its former splendor, with its painted dome, original balconies and intact ornamentation. There are couches scattered around, the stage is used as a reading space and café, and even better, the boxes are used as small reading rooms” , mentions the text published by the British newspaper Guardian, which places The Grand Splendid Athenaeum in second place among the most beautiful bookstores in the world.
El Ateneo is one of the most recognized and most valid bookstores in the country. This year celebrates its 110th anniversary, offering the reader the most varied books and publications. Created in 1912, its first premises were on Victoria Street, currently Hipólito Yrigoyen 653, between Peru and Chacabucoin the heart of the city of Buenos Aires.
Founded by Spanish immigrant Peter Garcia, The Athenaeum he began by editing medical books, which would end up being the strong point of the catalogue. García himself undertook several trips to Europe in search of these texts. At first, the publisher offered them in their foreign language version, to later translate them and turn them into reference material for the medical profession.
However, the first books that came out of the press contracted by El Ateneo were “The bases” of John Baptist Alberdi Y “Franklin’s life” of the French historian Francois Mignetwhich had had a first impression on Spain, which was part of Pedro García’s youth readings.
In 1938, El Ateneo moved to the traditional and sumptuous building of Florida 340owned by the Argentine film industry tycoon Max Gluckmann. Also, property of the producer was the movie theater of the Grand Splendidwhere its second headquarters would later be installed, in a place considered among the most beautiful bookstores in the world.
Just as the Florida location 340 was dedicated to Jorge Luis Borgesthe bookstore located where the Grand Splendid Cinemahonor the memory of Ernest Sabato. Two thousand square meters, with four levels, the space has books, a music section with vinyl and another with DVDs, in which the classics of cinema predominate.
For El Ateneo, the book works as a meeting tool and the bookstore as a cultural and exchange space. In 1968, the “Spring of Letters”a creation of Francisco Gil, who started working at the bookstore as a cadet and stayed there for fifty years. During those days, a large number of writers signed copies of his books, and it is considered the main antecedent of the International Book Fair.
Next Saturday, September 24, “La Primavera de Letras” will take place again, like every year. The writers will be signing copies Cristian Acevedo, Gloria Casañas, Rosario Oyhanarte, Leandro Vesco, Jason Wilson, Valeria Becerra, Luz Larenn, Florencia Vercellone. Laura Miranda, Daniela de Lucia and Guillermina Lopata. In addition, there will be talks and conferences in different sectors of the space, as well as children’s activities for the little ones.
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