The most beautiful bookstore in the world (where young people go to kiss)
This is the case of what the Dutch know as “Dominican Boekhandel” or, what is the same, the Dominican bookstore. The door that gives access to the enclosure is a huge block with stainless steel pages.
It weighs 1,234 kilos and it is impressive just to see it. If the initial short circuit is overcome, you can read “book” inscribed in 25 languages, but before the visitor finds the word in his native language, a sucking force deposits him inside what was previously It was a gothic style church.
He stands almost eight centuries , but just over a decade ago Dutch pragmatism made it the most beautiful bookstore in the world . Or so the inhabitants of Maastricht , who without a hint of doubt in their eyes affirm it without blinking.
"I'm sure you've heard something about it. CNN, BBC or The Guardian. They say that we are the most beautiful bookstore in the world and I think that is not an exaggeration. At least, We try to live up to expectations every time we receive someone through the door, ”he says for Traveler.es the owner of the bookstore, Tom Harmes.
A label that positions them, if not as the best (something impossible to say with certainty), then among the most beautiful bookstores in the world for travelers.
They receive so many curious people that they already add 800 thousand visitors a year. "The bookstore built in the sky, they say of this place." Something that curiously can play against you because many people enter to contemplate a wonderful spectacle for the eyes, but they leave without buying a single book:
"We are looking for formulas so that people are also encouraged to buy books. We must not forget that it is the main service of a bookstore”.
Almost eight centuries of beauty
Because, without going into heavenly considerations, the truth is that buying a bestseller among the more than 50,000 titles for sale under a very high ceiling fabulous 13th century crossed arches, carved capitals and murals with multicolored saints Inspirational enough, the curious history of this holy place adds an unexpected dose of romance.
And it is that at the beginning of the year 2000 the Dominican church was in ruins. The city of Maastricht tried multiple initiatives without success, and when everything was considered lost, popular pressure achieved the impossible: giving a new life to a church with an undeniable historical richness for the region and for Maastricht in particular.
“Thanks to the enormous fundraising success, open as a bookstore in 2006 with a crowdfunding Harmes says.
as a bookstore and as Cafeteria specialty , since at the end of the enclosure, where centuries ago the religious altar used to be, specialty coffees made in the oldest coffee shop in town: Blanche Dael.
The good people of Dominican Coffee Lovers they serve them with sweets and cakes at the end of the enclosure. Something too tempting for him large number of college students of the place, who take advantage of the celestial light to review the lesson in the middle of the afternoon.
You won't want to get out of it...
Beyond the innovativeness of the space, the concept of a bookstore within a church was a risky concept. It was very easy that the balance of forces between two completely different worlds (the religious and the commercial) would break at any moment.
It was also a party place
Let one outshine the other. This was the basic task of the architects Merkx and Girod: achieve the perfect transformation to a modern bookstore. They were evidently aware that they were obliged to work within the limits of monumental and historical status:
"To keep the immensity of the church intact and at the same time create enough space to present a multitude of books, they designed large black steel shelves: a two-story construction in the form of two racks 30 meters long and seven and a half meters high ".
The truth is that when exploring one of the upper platforms, the visitor experiences the liberating effect from space: “The open stairs, the elevator and the metal shelves open spaces emphasize this effect.”
But what became of this church when it lost its sacred function ago more than 200 years?
“It was a warehouse where they kept the guillotine, a printing press, an improvised school, the headquarters of the municipal orchestra, an art gallery, a boxing ring, a party venue, a space for car sales , a bicycle parking lot and even a kind of reptile zoo”.
From space for the sale of cars to a boxing ring
See them black and white photographs of the church turned into something as far away as a ring with boxers taking blows amid shouts from the audience or in a fair with offers of convertible cars It leaves speechless those who have always seen the religious buildings of their respective countries as something immutable for centuries.
Despite all that it has been, for the city of Maastricht and its inhabitants it will always be the place to celebrate carnival. It is in the Dominican church where young people kiss for the first time.
A coffee?
Because “as tradition marks, during the carnival the girls can kiss whoever they want and here it usually happens at the party that is celebrated inside the Dominican church. Many Maastricht residents have special memories here, including their first kiss at carnival time. I myself received my first kiss between these walls”, confesses Tom Harmes.
“Years later, it's funny to cross the streets of Maastricht with the person who gave you your first kiss. Many times it does not coincide with the couple with whom one ends up marrying ”.
That's when a complicit smile occurs between two people who kissed long ago. Hence many remember the appointed day inside the Dominican church with an involuntary blush on her cheeks.
A must for book lovers