The story
Welcome to the Rua das Carmelitas. As you stand before the ornate, Neo-Gothic facade of Livraria Lello, you are looking at what is often called the most beautiful bookstore in the world. Since 1906, this building has been a temple to literature, but today, most visitors come for one specific feature: the staircase.
Take a moment to step inside, let your eyes adjust to the golden light, and look toward the center of the room. There it is. A swirling, crimson-red serpent of a staircase that seems to defy gravity.
It splits in two, curves back on itself, and rises toward the magnificent stained-glass ceiling. It is undeniably magical. For years, the global narrative was that these very steps inspired J.
K. Rowling to create the moving staircases of Hogwarts or the aesthetics of Flourish and Blotts. The story goes that during her years teaching English in Porto in the early 1990s, she would sit in the coffee shop upstairs, sipping tea and plotting the world of Harry Potter.
It is a charming tale, but here is the truth: it is almost entirely a myth. In 2020, Rowling herself revealed that she had never actually set foot in Livraria Lello during her time in Portugal. She didn't even know it existed until years later.
While this broke the hearts of many fans, it actually allows us to appreciate the bookstore for what it truly is—a masterpiece of Portuguese engineering and art that stands on its own merits, without the need for wizardry. Now, I want you to look closer at those stairs. Run your eyes along the intricate carvings, the dark grain, and the warm texture of the banisters.
It looks like heavy, ancient, exotic wood, doesn't it? Perhaps mahogany or oak? Here is the second secret of Lello: there is almost no wood in that staircase at all.
When the engineer Xavier Esteves designed this structure, he used a brilliant deception. The staircase is actually made of reinforced concrete and plaster. This was a cutting-edge technique at the dawn of the 20th century.
To achieve those impossible, fluid curves, wood would have been too rigid and prohibitively expensive. Instead, artisans molded the shapes in plaster and then used a technique called "escultura de gesso" to paint it. They meticulously hand-painted the grain and the knots to mimic the appearance of timber so perfectly that even today, most visitors leave without ever realizing they’ve been looking at a plaster sculpture.
As you look up at the motto "Decus in Labore" or "Dignity in Work" inscribed in the stained glass above, remember that this room is a celebration of human ingenuity. Whether it inspired a famous book or not, the "fake" wooden stairs of Lello remain a very real triumph of imagination.