Livraria Lello

This guide to Livraria Lello in Porto follows the bookshop's odd modern fame: the rumor that its red spiral staircase inspired Hogwarts, tied to the two years J.K. Rowling spent living and teaching English in the city in the early 1990s. You'll hear Rowling's own denial of the connection, and how the legend grew anyway, drawing over a million visitors a year and forcing one of the only bookstores anywhere to start charging admission. It's a look at the gap between what the shop's carved wood and stained glass actually claim and what the myth insists on.