Philatelic Issue: 120 Years of Livraria Lello

Official stamp issue by CTT – Correios de Portugal, marking the 120th anniversary of Livraria Lello Porto and promoting its history nationally and internationally. This issue highlights the blacksmith, a figure present since 1906 in the bookshop's stained glass window and now part of its logo, with various graphic variations designed by Studio Eduardo Aires.

In 2026, Livraria Lello Porto will celebrate 120 years dedicated to books and intellectual freedom. This stamp issue evokes this journey, emphasising reading as one of the most enduring territories of freedom and affirming the bookshop's commitment to culture, critical thinking and imagination.

Porto is a city shaped by a deep sense of freedom and authenticity – values that have always accompanied the bookshop and are reflected in the way it relates to the territory and the world. The blue at the base of these stamps – the colour of the city – will now also be the colour of Livraria Lello Porto. The memory of the blue pencil, a historical symbol of censorship, is transformed here into a gesture of protection of the word.

The central figure in this issue is the blacksmith, who has been present since 1906 in the stained glass window that illuminates the staircase of the bookshop. Inspired by Hephaestus – the divine craftsman who forges the weapons of the gods – the blacksmith symbolises the dignity of creation and the work that shapes culture. At Livraria Lello, this metaphor takes on a particular significance: the ‘weapons’ that this house produces, books, are instruments of freedom, resistance and intellectual transformation. By also incorporating the logo, the blacksmith has become one of the great emblems of the bookshop, preserving its history and mission.

The stamps reinterpret this founding figure through various visual readings, refining and renewing the iconography that has accompanied Livraria Lello Porto for over a century. Each composition is a tribute to the act of creation – an act that has sustained the bookshop since 1906 and continues to define its future.

Celebrating 120 years is to honour a heritage and assume a responsibility: to continue to inspire the world to read and preserve the book as a space for encounter and freedom.

This philatelic issue is thus both a tribute and a promise – a reflection of the history of Livraria Lello Porto and the horizon it continues to build.