Rehabilitated in 2010, the Teatro Principal is one of the oldest operating theaters in Andalusia.
It was 1856, during the reign of Isabel II, when the construction of the new Puerto Real Theater began. Three years later, in 1859, a building was inaugurated whose name changed with the passing of time and events: Teatro de Isabel II, Teatro del Principe Alfonso and Teatro de la Libertad were its names until it received its current name of “Teatro Principal”.
The project was promoted by Antonio Matalobos, a businessman from Puerto de Santa María, and designed by the neoclassical architect Manuel García del Alamo.
The building responds to the type of nineteenth-century “Italian theater”, in which the lobby, the room with approximate shape of a horseshoe and the stage, are set along the main axis, receiving the relationship spaces: halls, corridors and stairs a treatment that gives them some relevance in the set.
This theater also has a specific characteristic in its typology, as it is a clear example of the hall linked to a Casino. The original theater had a seating capacity of 800, distributed in a courtyard, boxes, stalls and paradise bleachers.
Its decoration was discreet and clearly academicist influenced, and as was usual in nineteenth-century theaters, the dressing room and service areas were small and poorly equipped from the technical point of view.
Theater reform in 1989
At the end of the 80’s, in 1989, the City Council of Puerto Real and the Andalusian Government through the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, and the Ministry of Culture, initiated a process of rehabilitation of the theater by the architects Angel Diaz Dominguez and Juan Jimenez Mata, and the technical architect Manuel Ballester Diana.
The objective of the renovation work was twofold: to recover the historical and architectural values of the complex, and to adapt the theater’s equipment to the technical and safety needs of the 20th century. The renovation affected not only the structure of the building, but also the circulation areas and the services and technical facilities.
Before the works, the hall had a capacity of 800 seats, distributed in patio, boxes, stalls and paradise bleachers. After the works carried out, the seating capacity was reduced to 400 seats, the auxiliary spaces were improved, the curved wall of the paradise area was recovered, an orchestra pit was created in the hall and the building was equipped with all the specific technical means and the theater equipment was modernized.
Currently, the Teatro Principal of Puerto Real is planning a new extension to the adjoining property, known as the Casinillo, where new facilities for workshops, warehouses, staff dressing rooms, projection room or multipurpose spaces are planned.
