The Teatro Sá da Bandeira is the oldest performance venue in the city of Porto, with a capacity for 786 people and opened in 1846, it was responsible for the first presentation of films produced in Portuguese, and was converted in the first years of its opening on stage to some of the 19th century theater biggest stars, such as Sarah Bernhardt, Julián Gayarre and Antonio Scalvini.
History
On August 4, 1846, it was inaugurated as Teatro Circo, a wooden shack, built by D. José Toudon Ferrer Catalon for his equestrian company. In 1867 it was demolished to make another one of stone and lime, which in turn was replaced, ten years later, by the building that has survived until today. Until the opening of Rua Sá da Bandeira, at the end of the 1870s, when its façade for that street was built, the theater was only accessible by then Santo António street, by some stairs that still exist. By that time it was renamed Teatro-Circo do Príncipe Real. It was, if not considered the São João Theater, considered the best theater in the city of Porto. There, in November 1895, Sarah Bernhardt performed several pieces including "La dame aux camélias" and "Fedora"; there was the first presentation, in Porto, of the Animatógrafo and also there, on 12 November 1896, that Aurélio da Paz dos Reis presented the first films made by a Portuguese. In October 1910 the name Teatro do Príncipe Real was changed to Teatro Sá da Bandeira. One of his most notable entrepreneurs was Afonso Taveiro, who would die of apoplexy in the theater audience, when he was directing the general rehearsal of Eduardo Schwalbach's magazine "O dia do Juízo". However, in 1909 his greatest mentor emerged: Arnaldo Moreira da Rocha Brito great entrepreneur "free-thinker" who was entrepreneur of this theater until his death in 1970 completing 60 years of management. This man from Porto stands out because he was also the first tenant of the Coliseu do Porto... having maintained this management for 8 years... leaving for not agreeing with the then Salazarist politicism. It was one of the first, if not the first theater in Porto, to use electric lighting instead of gas lighting. In May 1899, when the D. Maria IINational Theater Company of Lisbon appeared there, the advertising posters contained the indication that "In all the shows of this company, the room and the stage are illuminated by electric light, which provides viewers with a pleasant temperature ". In April 2009 it went on sale for 5.5 million euros. On June 23, 2017, the Porto City Council purchased the theater for 2.1 million euros from the approximately 60 owners of the space, heirs of five families. The Câmara do Porto launched a classification process with the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, also awarding it the distinction as an Entity of Historical and Cultural or Social Local Interest. In March 2019, the Chamber of Porto decided to sell the theater at public auction for the base bid price of 2.190 million euros, considering that "the utility of maintaining the building in question" was exhausted". It was purchased by Livraria Lello on 30 May 2019 for 3.5 million euros.
Features
The building includes, in addition to the theater, three stores, and has a total of five thousandsquare meters of covered area. In addition to the main room, the theater has two more cinemas.
