Municipal Theater

In the middle of the 19th century, the need for a municipal theater in Almagro began to be considered. The reasons given in the Report sent in 1860 to the Minister of the Interior to authorize its construction, on the initiative of the City Council and a group of neighbors, argued its necessity based on the new social and cultural demands of the population "(...) so useful to make the youth understand the path of virtues, diverting them from corrupting customs, as well as necessary in the time of general development of important improvements that lead to the embellishment and greatness of the town (...)". Almagro was merely following the trend initiated in the Madrid Court, which demanded the beautification of the city as a sign of modernity at a time when the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie demanded a more Europeanist image of the city, detached from local traditions. The architect in charge of the project was Cirilo Vara y Soria, who chose the neo-Greco-Roman style to better adapt to the function of the building. The theater was located on San Agustín Street, on a site previously occupied by a group of dilapidated houses. In the architect's opinion, the lack of land was a disadvantage, as there was no room for a square, as in other theaters, for the relief of spectators and carriages, and to avoid noises that could be heard from outside, but it was adjusted to the land available. The new theater had a capacity for about 800 seats and was distributed over three floors. The first floor had separate entrances for the public, actors and employees, and from its vestibule there was access to the elliptical-shaped stalls. On the second floor there was a rest room and a corridor giving access to its eleven boxes, while the second floor was reduced to the gallery around the stalls, with seats in the bleachers that ended up occupying the surface of the corridor. The elliptical shape was chosen for acoustic reasons, reflecting a uniform sound, as well as for a better use of space. According to its author, the interior decoration responds to the Greco-Roman style with variations according to the proportions. The façade was designed according to the decontextualized neoclassicist style, following the dominant trend of the time for public and institutional buildings, conservative in character and preferred by the dominant bourgeois class. The theater had an uninterrupted theatrical activity until the 50's of the last century when it began to be used as a cinema. Towards the end of the 70's, the building, in obvious deterioration, was closed due to its dilapidated state. The theater was restored in 1989 according to the project of the distinguished architect Miguel Fisac, opening again to the public for the development of multiple activities, especially theatrical. Its constant use made necessary a new restoration in 2006.