The seven lives of the century-old Alibri bookstore

BarcelonaA man in a trench coat and hat strolls incognito through the aisles of Alibri until, when it's time to pay for the novel he wants to give to the friend accompanying him, he can no longer conceal his identity: it'sArturo Pérez-Revertewho didn't want to miss the centenary of one of Barcelona's oldest and most beloved bookstores. The author ofThe Dumas Club He ended up signing a copy of the latest Captain Alatriste installment at the Alibri team the same week they celebrated their 100th anniversary, the culmination of a long and eventful journey that began in late November 1925, when Anton Schaedel, a German bookseller trained at the Institut Herder in Barcelona, opened Herder –Alibri since the late 1990s–, which everyone knew by the nickname "the German bookstore." The establishment, located on the first floor of number 22 Balmes Street, was mainly dedicated to the import and sale of books in Spanish and Latin published by the Herder publishing house, founded in 1798 in Freiburg.

"In its century of existence, Alibri has survived collectivizations, a bomb, expropriations, urban transformations, and other crises, but we're still here," explains Tomàs Casals, the bookstore's general manager since the end of 2022, when the company he leads, Bookish, reached an agreement with the owners. Weeks earlier, management had informed the staff of the closure. "One of Alibri's assets is its history," Casals continues. "For decades, the Gothic Quarter and the Eixample district had been home to iconic bookstores like Catalònia, the Canuda"The Five of Golds and the French Bookstore. The only one that still exists is Alibri. The passage of time has ended up turning it into the great classic bookstore of Barcelona."

The bumpy road to the present

The old Herder bookstore on the first floor of Balmes Street soon moved to the ground floor. In 1931, when Barcelona celebrated Book Day for the first time on April 23, the booksellers at the establishment embraced the occasion with enthusiasm. "They knew they were part of a Barcelona that read, debated, and dreamed," reads the exhibition that Alibri is dedicating to its centenary inside the store. If the bookstore has had seven lives, like cats, the second began in 1936, at the start of the Civil War, when it was "collectivized by the FAI and renamed La Internacional, at which point part of its most valuable collection was destroyed," Casals continues. Herder was reborn for the third time when, on March 17, 1938, a bomb fell a few meters from the shop, on the corner of Balmes and Gran Via, and although it shattered the windows, it did not destroy the building.

The current Alibri could have become history at the end of the Spanish Civil War, when Herder, based in Freiburg, decided to close its Barcelona branch because the losses were unsustainable. Months later, part of the founding team bought back the business and reopened it. Thus began the bookstore's fourth incarnation. In 1941, it was officially recognized as a university bookstore—its location right next to the historic University of Barcelona building was a significant advantage—and five years later it moved to its current location at number 26 Balmes Street. In 1971, when Antonio Valtl—who had been associated with the establishment for almost four decades—bought Leo Fetscher's share and became its sole owner, he appointed Hermann Nahm as manager, who modernized the store. "It was from then on that the bookstore specialized in three subjects that are still fundamental: psychology, languages, and the humanities," recalls Tomàs Casals. "We like to combine these specializations with Alibri's current generalist approach."

If the bookstore's fifth incarnation coincided with the transition to democracy, the cultural boom of the 1980s, and the energy generated by the 1992 Olympic Games, its sixth began in 1999 with a name change. Alibri aims to be a synthesis of the bookstore's spirit, a neologism created from the fusion ofalumni and book. In the fall of 2022, the bookstore announced its closure due to "economic difficulties" that prevented the project from surviving. Bookish, previously dedicated to literary subscriptions, bought it to ensure its continuity. "Until then, we had communicated with readers from a distance, but after arriving at Alibri, we wanted to get closer," Casals explains. "That Barcelona has a bookstore like ours, with more than 1,400 square meters and a collection approaching 100,000 titles, is a privilege [1797], and for Paris, it is a privilege to have one." Shakespeare & Company [1919]”.

Alibri currently employs 15 people, “a very experienced team that works to protect the essence of the bookstore while also moving things forward,” says Casals. Since acquiring Alibri, Bookish has also purchased, in 2024, Caselles de Lleida (2009). “In a world where city centers are becoming increasingly homogenized, bookstores with history provide authenticity and an important connection with citizens,” says the current CEO of Alibri.