It all started inside Poland Konstanz. 25 people decided on this boat. Alicante needed a new theater, the great plant, at the height of the city and its citizens. happened September 23, 1845 when that group of merchants ventured to Constanta “to buy the cargo”. There, “a public good idea came into these guys’ heads, it was designed and adopted to see it happen.”
This was the beginning of a story that turns 175 years old today. Alicante’s New TheaterOriginally called the Teatro Principal, it opened its doors for the first time to host the play. Guzman GoodBy Antoni Gil de Zarate. Although this was almost the least.
This story is collected Theater Magazinea publication born at the same time as the Colosseum and preserved in the museum Legacy of the Portes Familywas a milestone for both the city and the rest of the country. first for him agreed upon among people at very different economic, ideological and social levels, and secondly, because they are precise only 20 monthsfor erection and opening of the building, despite the significant volume of construction.
The first thing to do after getting off the ship was to pack. claim the land to the Alicante City Council because they wanted it to be located in the new part of the city. And they took for one The symbolic sum of 8,000 pesetas. There was nothing built in that area, so much so that there was still the old wall just behind the place where the building was to be erected.
In November 1945, the principles for the preparation of the regulation by which the founding association of the theater would be governed were approved, and a month later, the green light was given to the plan and budget presented by the theater. municipal architect and academician Emilio Jover, Who commissioned the building?
Jover had already accomplished a project that was never done to build a theater on the historic site in 1841. “They wanted to repair the Hospital de Dios, but in the end they felt it didn’t represent them, they wanted a big new monumental theatre.” Juana Maria Balsalobre Doing intense research on Teatro Principal to structure the exhibition held in Lonja and the catalog that collects these documents, Dr.
this the foundation stone was laid on January 2, 1846 and financing was provided by a loan from the Spanish Bank of San Fernando, the only bank to approve the issuance of the money. Of course, responding to that entity with the proportional approval of each partner.
Like any self-respecting budget, 125,000 pesetas more than expected were required to finish the building. According to the minutes included in the Articles of Association of the General Assembly of Shareholders, the amount to be received with 8% interest instead of the previous 6%. After all, the total cost construction amounted to 232,577 pesetas.
“This is aEfferent of theatrical architecture of the first half of the 19th centuryAccording to Pedro Navascués, academician and professor at the Royal Academy of San Fernando”, corroborates Juan María Balsalobre.
It started as Teatro Nuevo in front of the Teatro Viejo on Calle López Torregrosa, then Calle Liorna with Avenida de la Constitución. «It worked, but it broke down quite a bit; Actually, a party was going to be held at this theater during a visit by Queen Elizabeth, but I researched and found that it was not held because it did not have the proper conditions,” says Balsalobre.
Revista del Teatro has collected a detailed description of both the exterior and interior of the building. “The four façades are made of stonework, 54 palms high (these are Castilian measures), 234 long and 122 wide, insulated by three wide streets and a square to the northeast. The three-stepped Doric portico, six columns with attic plinths. It has five gates, five on the main façade and two niches on the sides of which statues are placed in the middle.
As for the interior, it’s described as made with “good taste and elegance, and even some purely luxurious stuff.” And he continues: «In the ceiling there is a glorious sky with high light, and near the proscenium there is Apollo». And refers to the painter Ramon Simarro and Oltra «one who has imagination and knows the philosophy of his art».
The curtain rose on September 25, 1847. In the show, together with the actors «Mr. Arjones, Mrs. Cantos and Mr. Castelló”, 1,159 people attended. Teatro Magazine hailed the opening of the new coliseum as a complete success. “Today, if resources were scarce, it was easier to surrender yourself to a complete fast than to stop going to the theatre. On the night of September 25, the people of Alicante were happy and having fun there, even if the stage did not open all night. It has been 175 years since then.