The Ateneo Grand Splendid!

This stunning bookstore and icon of the city was originally constructed as a theatre in 1919, but soon also began hosting tango concerts and great tango musicians and singers such as Carlos Gardel would sing on stage there and also record in the studios of the Nacional Odeon record label on one of the upper floors of the building.

The venue was also used as a cinema and in 1929 served the first sound movie shown in Argentina - The Divine Lady about the romance between Admiral Nelson and Lady Hamilton.

The venue’s use alternated between theatre and cinema, and then at the start of the 21st century the venue underwent yet another transformation and found a most unexpected use, this time as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.

The old theatre boxes were exchanged for bookshelves while beautifully maintaining the original style now stocks around 120,000 books.