Great Theatre of Huelva

Honouring the title given by King Alfonso XIII of Spain, the Great Theatre of Huelva was opened the 30 August 1923. This theatre, born from the dreams and wishes of the local bourgeoisie, was planned by architect Pedro Sánchez Núñez, who presented a project with a neoclassical style. This idea was very fashionable among the architectonical historicism of the nineteenth century and deep-rooted in the whole Spain for the construction of cultural buildings, especially theatres.

The outer façade is fully rusticated and has three entrances with round arches for the audience, whereas the laterals of the building have straight-lined entrances for the staff. The middle area of the façade has enormous glass windows supported by podia with theatre masks and consoles with plant motifs. The windows are separated by gigantic, Corinthian columns.

The building ends with a third floor having oculi with festoons corresponding to each bay of the lower part of the floor. The theatre is crowned by two pinnacles over each end of the building and a pediment with a corbel.

Inside, the theatre has a functional appearance whose spatial features do not correspond to the traditional planning of a theatre, as it was built with a view to a new show – the cinematograph, which was becoming fashionable at that moment. A proof of it is the lack of proportion of the scene or the hall, which are particularly small so that the pit has a bigger capacity.

Between 1984 and 1990, architect Antonio de la Lama carried out a great remodelling of the building.