The largest literary hotel in the world
In a town where a church has been transformed into a bookstore and in the cellar you can taste the wine of the region accompanied by a good book, a literary accommodation could not be missing, which, in addition, It houses the largest existing library in a hotel.
On December 11, UNESCO classified the small town of **Óbidos as a Literary City**, culminating an ambitious project that began to take shape in 2011, when the city's municipal chamber decided to promote the creation of a dozen bookstores in unusual places like a old cellar either a church , in addition to a literary festival . Today, this small walled town, a true jewel less than an hour from the Portuguese capital, it smells of books and big names in literature.
The largest literary hotel in the world
behind we leave the Church of Sao Tiago , one of the most emblematic buildings in Óbidos, now converted into the Gran Librería de Santiago , to come across the The Literary Man , an old 19th century convent, today literary hotel , which already treasures the largest collection of books known within a hotel establishment, thanks to negotiations with various publishers and donations from individuals.
Telmo Faria, the architect of this unique accommodation, he receives us in a room full of books, how could it be otherwise, to tell us about his particular literary adventure, which he began just a few months ago: “Actually this is a living project, not yet finished . We are even willing to exchange books for stays to encourage those who love literature to actively participate in the process of building the hotel”.
Great Library of Santiago
Telmo remembers how the hotel had just opened, three Australians, traveling the world with their backpack, had to cancel the accommodation they had booked because it was too far from the city center.
The businessman then proposed pay the same price as they would in the cheap hostel in exchange for some help to put books on the shelves . The three young women were so enthusiastic about the experience that they even had to be told to stop working and go out and visit the town.
tree of books
MORE THAN 100,000 BOOKS
The hotel that currently has just over 22,000 books , aspire to reach 100,000 copies within a year. "Other literary hotels in the world have only managed to have four thousand, at most five thousand books"-Telmo points out with a point of pride.
In corridors, rooms, halls, in the restaurant and of course in the library-bar we find the classics of Portuguese and international literature, children's books, old volumes, a generous collection of crime novels, without forgetting best sellers like the famous trilogy of Stieg Larson.
An extensive repertoire placed at the entire disposal of the visitor who can pick up and read the books to their liking, borrow them for a time, buy them at a reasonable price or even exchange them for others. “The idea is that our guests do not find barriers to enjoy literature , we want them to mess up the shelves, to move the books around, to share their own”.
Even the bar is read in The Literary Man
Apart from his obvious passion for literature, Telmo Faria, who was already mayor of Óbidos between 2001 and 2013, he is absolutely convinced of the therapeutic properties of reading . "We invite our guests to relax through bibliotherapy." Immersing yourself in exquisite readings and relaxing at the same time through them seems to be the perfect combination offered by this literary hotel.
This, gentlemen, is bibliotherapy
30 ROOMS NOT TOO LITERARY
The Literary Man has 30 rooms that are divided between those that have a traditional decoration and these others that have been completely renovated and with an eco-chic decoration , as defined by its owner, in which all materials are recycled and made by hand.
The medium-term objective is that each room is devoted to a specific writer where guests can find the complete work of that author (once again Telmo Faria reminds us that the hotel is like a book that is written little by little). For the moment we will have to settle for leafing through the heterogeneous and somewhat disorganized collection of books that we find in our rooms, in the hope of occupying r one day the Saramago Suite.
Future literati rooms
in the flirty restaurant with shelves lined with books and a suggestive fireplace that crackles incessantly, we receive the menu in a sealed envelope, in a subtle tribute to the The postman of Neruda, written by the Chilean writer. Already completely imbued with the poetic spirit we hope to find a literary menu, perhaps Saramago's favorite dish or Pessoa's favorite "petisco"...
Instead we find a regional menu with modern touches and some vegetarian dishes that are excessively expensive for the place. Well, some fault had to have The Literary Man.
The restaurant, packed with Penguins
The hotel has a spa, in which they will soon introduce wine therapy treatments, highly relaxing, According to what they tell us, we imagine that in case bibliotherapy does not work 100% or perhaps as a complement, because Robert Louis Stevenson already said it: "Wine is bottled poetry." The gin bar, in a corner of the library, is another element that will undoubtedly contribute significantly to calming down the most stressed spirits. And everything helps...
Do not miss a good selection of gastronomic literature
THE CHALLENGE
If there is something that has seduced us from The Literary Man It is not only the fact of having managed to gather a huge number of books or his obsession with sharing them in the most varied ways, no: what we really find appellative is the challenge launched by its creator to the general public so that they become part of the team of narrators who write the history of the hotel.
Do you have several boxes of books that you are very attached to but don't know what to do with them? Are you passionate about literature and would you like to collaborate in some way on an original project? A budding writer looking for inspiration? The Literary Man is waiting for you…
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