Livraria do Simão Lisbon

The tiniest bookshop

Alexandre from Lisbon

About me I’ve been a Lisbon resident (“alfacinha” as the Lisbon inhabitants are often called) since 1993; I first came to this beautiful city to finish my studies and ended up finding a job, a house and a neighborhood where I feel at home. I live with my girlfriend Fatinha; I’m an origami enthusiast and a board game addict. I consider myself a romantic in love with things from o...
""Livraria do Simão": probably the smallest bookshop in Portugal, let alone Lisbon. It has around 4.000 used books & despite not being a book fan I love it!"

I'm not a books person; I do like to read but I don't actually do it as often and sometimes I leave my readings in the middle to be picked up later. Nevertheless, I can't help talking about this spot.

Livraria do Simão is probably the smallest bookshop in Portugal, surely the tiniest of Lisbon and maybe one of the tightest of the world; believe me, tight is the right word! So tight that it's impossible for the owner and the client to be inside together! This doesn't mean the book offer is small; or the choice limited. I was told that Simão, the owner, has about 4,000 books available here and some of them are rarities. And these books are not exclusively in Portuguese; there are a lot of books in a variety of other languages.

I do have to point out that this is a store of used books. Lisbon has several book stores with the same purpose of selling old books; we call these shops "Alfarrabista". Although there are other zones more populated with this kind of shops, I find this one unique and worth a visit even if you're not a "reader".

Easy to reach when entering the arch to "Escadinhas de São Cristóvão" from "Rua da Madalena", I believe you can now look at it with a different idea. A gathering of some preciosities concentrated in 4m2, with prices starting from a few coins to a pile of bills.

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Lisbon Spotter Alexandre

About me I’ve been a Lisbon resident (“alfacinha” as the Lisbon inhabitants are often called) since 1993; I first came to this beautiful city to finish my studies and ended up finding a job, a house and a neighborhood where I feel at home. I live with my girlfriend Fatinha; I’m an origami enthusiast and a board game addict. I consider myself a romantic in love with things from other times; things like film photography, vinyl discs or the first gaming consoles immediately make me smile. I see myself as a friendly person. I’m unpretentious and open minded and love...

About this spot

Escadinhas de São Cristóvão, 18

no-price

211106666

Dec 10, 2025

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