Livraria Lello and Teatro Sá da Bandeira
Livraria Lello and Teatro Sá da Bandeira: two centenary monuments bound to the service of culture in Porto
On the eve of Saint John’s, Porto embarks on a truly city-wide festival and including everybody irrespective of their purchasing power, social background, colour, sexual orientation or cultural tastes.
This year, when the city’s festival shall be less open and less total for pandemic related reasons, Livraria Lello celebrates its city and the Feast of Saint John by commemorating culture. After the pandemic prevented the completion of the property registration scheduled for 27 March, World Theatre Day, and at a time when we may all make a return to the Prettiest Bookstore in the World and when just beginning to get the city’s theatres back open, we chose this symbolic day for Porto to celebrate the notary act that completes the purchase by Livraria Lello of the Sá da Bandeira Theatre from the Municipal Council of Porto, following the municipality run public auction in May 2019 in which Livraria Lello emerged with the winning bid, investing €3.5 million in the heritage and culture of the city and the country that has not only not been jeopardised by the onset of the pandemic but now appears still more essential to our collective recovery as a city with heritage and an open culture to those who live here and all those who visit.
In the same fashion as the Livraria Lello management knew in recent years to return a historical bookstore to the city and the world, requalifying both its exteriors and interiors and enhancing the heritage and cultural experience of those who visit the central, downtown area of Porto, it now runs and tends to the maintenance of the Sá da Bandeira Theatre for cultural purposes in keeping with its recognition as Heritage in the Public Interest back in January, not as any onus or burden but rather as a tangible and intangible asset that needs, in full compliance with the legal framework in effect and all of the terms and conditions associated with the sale, preserving, developing and enabling through caring for it as if worthy of our most profound feelings of love.
The Sá da Bandeira Theatre is a jewel in the city of Porto and Portugal.
It is this jewel, more than that in itself offered by its bookstore, that configures an unforgettable present from Livraria Lello to Porto: the precious present that is the centenary old Sá da Bandeira Theatre, built in 1877 and thus baptised in 1910 one week on from the declaration of the Portuguese Republic of which we are today all fellow citizens.
É esta cidadania cultural e patrimonial que iremos celebrar, consigo, no próximo dia 23 de junho, data que pedimos que reserve já na sua agenda para nela estar connosco na Livraria Lello, às 9h30.
It is this cultural and heritage citizenship that we wish to celebrate with you on 23 June, a date we would request you set aside in your diary in order to be here with us at Livraria Lello at 9.30am. Due to the particular health and safety conditions in effect and that we shall fully comply with, we would thank you for your necessary confirmation in due time, which we are certain you shall understand so that all of us, as we know is your particular case, can hold Livraria Lello in a very special place in our hearts.
