Easily walkable through central Buenos Aires. A unique and interesting bookshop inside a historic theatre. Place is filled with books mostly in Spanish across multiple levels and spaces It is really inviting and more than a tourist attraction if you have time to linger, experience the Stage cafe and take it all in. I loved that locals enjoy buying and reading books.

An indispensable place to visit in Buenos Aires. It was my third time in town and I still didn't know, absurd I can say 🤣. This bookstore is well in the Center and we went on Saturday but if you want to take advantage of the Center itself it is better to go from Monday to Friday, because I found that in the weekend the streets around were quite empty. When entering the building we were already impressed with the architecture MARAVILHOSAAAA, remembering that there was an old theater that was transformed into a bookstore. Our beautiful, no words to describe how beautiful and full of details. Inside it is a coffee too, we were no more is an option. Now let’s talk about the book collection, something that also caught us a lot of attention. Because it has 3 floors in total of several and various books and underground has a childish part, beautiful. It also has a part of CDs and super cool vinyl disc. There are several art books that we do not see physically in Brazil. Our nothing like finding in a book and folhea it. And had several art books in Portuguese or Spanish or that is quite different from Brazil, which almost all are in English. After all, obviously we acquired a book, because really the architecture is beautiful but the collection also draws attention. And for curiosity in front of El Ateneo is a Zara.

We were blown away by the beauty of this"bookstore"- definitely the most beautiful one I have ever seen. The private opera boxes are now reading nooks and the stage is now a Havanna cafe. There are bookstores that have more of a selection (especially in English), but no bookstore matches the opulence of this one. Take the stairs for a good view and imagine what it was like to watch an opera in this stunning building.

If you are in the area, stop by and see this bookstore! There is no charge to enter. Feel free to take pictures. Scan the book/items you might want to purchase in order to find out the price — due to inflation issues, the prices change all the time. They have a great selection of books and other items so this is well worth the visit. There is a cafe in there as well. I believe this is the most beautiful bookstore I have ever visited.

Great if you love books; pretty dang great if you don’t. This is a huge bookstore. Yes… shelves, books, coffee, people reading, etc. but this is the OVER-THE-TOP setting for a bookstore. It’s an old theater and they’ve preserved it well before filling it with a gazillion books. Multiple stories. Lots of photo opportunities and things see. Architecture is very old school, classy big city theater. Good size cafe place. Just know that this is a Top 10 site in BA and that comes with lots of visitors… including camera-clad tourist from the big buses. If you want to buy a book… not your only option in BA (in fact there are chain sites of El Ateneo throughout the city), but is the only place to buy a book while walking all fancy like down a marble staircase pretending you’re royalty while butchering a British or French accept.

We were told that this was the best bookstore in the world sometime ago in 2019? The actual structure of this bookstore is based on an old opera house! However, there are only a few English selections as most of the books were written in Spanish. In the basement they were selling CDs and the old Long play albums! You can take an elevator or stairs to the 2nd floor and 1st floor. They also sell some souvenirs which were quite cheap compared to the other tourist areas!

We walked here from Recoleta. What a treat. This is an absolutely gorgeous reconfigured theatre. The imagination to turn this into a bookstore, with a cafe on the stage and quiet reading spots in the opera boxes is inspired. All titles are in Spanish but there is a music section in the basement next to the children’s section. Loved this place and recommend!

Getting there is shocking. Everything surprises , its architecture , decoration, lighting , maintenance , diversity of options to search texts of all types and varieties. Beautiful and enormous amount of material to observe, explore and discover. It’s important to spend time and quietly walk it to the stage where there is a coffee to pause. There are book presentations and I was fortunate to be able to see the Ludovica 2025 book presentation.

I love books and the Ateneu provides a spectacle for those who like reading. The building is beautiful on the inside and has a very large variety of books. The coffee that is in the background has a wonderful panel using all the wall space that is huge

If you like books and amazing buildings go! It's free to enter and has an amazing variety of books (mostly in Spanish) There is a coffee shop inside and you get to see the magnificent building. Unassuming from the outside. Worth going in just to take some pics either as you walk in or from the balconies (accessed via stairs at the side)