The Gran Teatro Falla is a

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

in the city of

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is located in the Plaza Fragela, facing the Casa de las Viudas and adjacent to the Faculty of Medicine of the

University of Cádiz The University of Cádiz (in Spanish: Universidad de Cádiz), commonly referred to as UCA, is a public university located in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, noted for its medicine and marine sciences curricula. It was founded in 1979 ...

. Construction of the theater began in 1884, following plans by architect

Adolfo Morales de los Ríos Adolfo may refer to: * Adolfo, São Paulo, a Brazilian municipality * Adolfo (designer), Cuban-born American fashion designer * Adolfo or Adolf Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name used in Ge ...

. It was based on the foundation of the previous Gran Teatro de Cádiz, a wooden building designed by García del Álamo and built in 1871, but which had burned in 1881. In 1886 the city government took over direction of the project, which proceeded only intermittently due to lack of funds. The theater was completed in 1905. Municipal architect Juan Cabrera de la Torre made significant modifications to Morales's original plans. The theater was known as the "Gran Teatro" until 1926 when it was renamed for composer and native son

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first ...

. Built in the

Neo-Mudéjar Neo-Mudéjar is a type of Moorish Revival architecture practised in the Iberian Peninsula and to a far lesser extent in Ibero-America. This architectural movement emerged as a revival of Mudéjar style. It was an architectural trend of the late ...

style, it is made of red brick, and has three grand

horseshoe arch The horseshoe arch (; Spanish: "arco de herradura"), also called the Moorish arch and the keyhole arch, is an emblematic arch of Islamic architecture, especially Moorish architecture. Horseshoe arches can take rounded, pointed or lobed form. Hi ...

entry doorways on its principal façade, with alternating red and white

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

s. One enters through these doors into a large vestibule, which was redesigned in the 1920s. Stairways ascend to the horseshoe or "U"-shaped galleries above. The stage is wide and deep. The ceiling shows an allegory of Paradise, the work of Felipe Abarzuza y Rodríguez de Arias. Every February the Gran Teatro Falla is the site of the artistic competitions of the Carnival of Cádiz. During repairs and restoration from 1987 to 1991, those competitions were held instead at the now-defunct Teatro Andalucía. Through the rest of the year, the theater hosts all manner of shows, such as plays or concerts.

External links

3D model
on Google Earth {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Cádiz Theatres in Spain Theatres completed in 1905 1905 establishments in Spain