The bookstore of Buenos Aires El-Ateneo-Grand-Splendid was chosen the prettiest bookstore in the world by National Geographic in 2019.

The current building was started in 1917 and opened in May 1919 by Austrian businessman Mordechai David Glücksman (known to everyone as “Max”). He commissioned its construction in order to install a theater-theater on the foundations of what was the National Theater North. He called the new theater Gran Splendid.
In February 2000 the Ilhsa Group signed a rental agreement until 2010 and invested 3 million pesos in renovations that were carried out by the architect Fernando Manzone.
El Ateneo bookstore is a traditional brand, created in 1912, which is currently associated with the firm Yenny, and has more than 34 stores spread throughout Argentina, mainly in Buenos Aires. The venue of the former Grand Splendid theater is the largest and most diverse of the chain’s offer: 120,000 titles in stock. According to 2008 figures, some 3,000 visits per day were taken – measured by an electronic counter at the entrance door – and more than 700,000 were sold. It is a tourist point in the tours of the area especially for foreigners.

The current bookstore maintained the splendor of the disappeared cinema-theater, with the painted cupola, the original balconies, the intact ornamentation and even the velvet curtain. Several comfortable armchairs distributed allow you to sit down to read any book without obligation of purchase so much in what was the place of the stalls as in the old boxes, or in what was the scene that is currently used restaurant and confectionery and has a piano in the which music is played that accompanies the reading.
The dome measures 20 m x 19 m x 3.65 m. The technique for painting the work that is seen in it was that of oil painting, and its director was Nazareno Orlandi.5 It is an allegorical representation of peace, painted in 1919 as a celebration for the end of the First War World. Peace is represented by a sensual female figure that is painted on a staircase surrounded by flowers.
Address: Av. Santa Fe 1860, Buenos Aires city.
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday from 9 to 22, Friday and Saturday from 9 to 24, Sunday from 12 to 22.