Matras

We visited this bookstore today and *loved* it. As soon as you enter the store from the main square, you leave behind the noise & tourists and enter a wonderful sanctuary. The building in which Matras is located is where Europe’s first bookshop was founded, in 1610.
For starters, the selection is very good; it’s quite eclectic. They also have a room filled with children’s books and many beautiful notebooks & other items. The store is narrow, but they’ve made great use of the space; you walk up a few steps at gradual points and there are a few (large/​comfortable) chairs on each «landing». At the very top, there are a few tables with more comfortable chairs and then there’s a small café.
Altogether, there are six «rooms» in 280 sq. meters of space. Two of the rooms are dedicated respectively to the Noble Prize winners Wislawa Szymborska & Czeslaw Milosz (as an aside, we’d met Czeslaw Milosz nearly 27 years ago) and those rooms include their Noble certificates & other personal items.
The female employee didn’t speak English, but the two men working there spoke good English and I had a very pleasant conversation with each of them.
A very memorable and special bookstore!