Principal Theatre

The Principal Theatre of Alicante (Teatro Principal de Alicante) was inaugurated in 1847, it is the quintessential theatrical venue. The main facade is of neoclassical style. The interior, designed according to the Italian typology of the time, is divided into three clearly differentiated areas: the lobby, the cavea with a horseshoe shape, and the stage. In the 1840s, the bourgeoisie of Alicante, composed of property owners dedicated to commerce, was dynamic and enterprising. Besides local trade, Alicante, a maritime city, was one of the reception and distribution points for colonial products and other goods to the interior of the peninsula. They were united by their status and also by the idea of building their temple, their bourgeois theater. New, detached, monumental, representative, outside the historic city. Thanks to this elite of merchants, property owners, and two nobles, who endorsed and paid for the loan to make the construction a reality. And to the Town Hall that ceded the land, on Calle Barranquet (now Avenida de la Constitución), for a symbolic sum. In 1847, Emilio Jover Pierron (Nancy, 1812 – Alicante, 1854), an architect trained at the Royal Academy of San Fernando and the city’s municipal architect, designed the theatre. His work established it as both an architectural landmark in Alicante and a significant example of early 19th-century theatrical typology, as evident in the architect’s detailed drawings of the structure.