The Llibreria Sant Jordi on Carrer Ferran, a symbol of neighborhood resistance in the Gòtic, is reopening its doors. After a closure that hurt many and caused an avalanche of support in the form of buying books during his last week of life, which is one of the last bookstores in the center of the city will be saved, finally, of its closure.
It will do so thanks to the Barcelona travel agency Temps d’Oci, which will create in the premises a new hybrid space of cafeteria, bookshop and culture under the name of Espai Sant Jordi. The idea, as explained in statements to Time Out, is “to offer a lively, open and welcoming place for readers, neighbors, visitors and anyone who wants to connect with a piece of Barcelona’s history and identity”.
This agency is the same one that rescued not so long ago or the historic Llibreria Quera, turning it into a restaurant-bookstore that enjoys good health. The opening is scheduled for this summer.
The closing of the bookshop at the end of last year marked one of those moments when the city seems to lose a piece of itself . Josep Morales, its last manager, passed away, and his widow, Cristina Riera, was forced to quickly liquidate the publishing stock – more than 4,000 books – in the face of an unsustainable rise in rent and the lack of generational replacement. In a matter of days, the news spread like wildfire and the queues to buy books spread through the streets as a gesture of support for the long-established trade.