City Theatre

The construction of the theater dates back to 1872 by the military engineer Breda and was built where once stood the church and monastery of the Annunciation and the palace of the Prince of Cattolica. The materials used in the construction were the same from the knocking down of the sacred buildings. Soon, however, the work was suspended due to the onset of severe cracks in the front.

The Town Hall then asked the intervention of the architect Damiani d’Almeyda – author of Politeama of Palermo – to perform the evaluations. These proposed to demolish what until then built. This led to a long legal dispute that ended with the cancellation of the work to Breda; it was then passed to Damian D’Almeyda who modified the original project.

The theater has an imposing appearance. It was inaugurated in the spring of 1897, with the representation of the “Gioconda” by Ponchielli and the “Faust” by Gounod. The activity of the theater lasted only sixty years.

Closed for renovations in 1957, after the performance of “Il Trovatore” of Verdi, “La Boheme” of Puccini, “La Cavalleria Rusticana” of Mascagni and “I Pagliacci” of Leoncavallo, it never opened again.
The restoration work was taken up in a concrete way for about six years and during this period the restoration of some paintings has been completed; the whole building was also consolidated (all roof, foundations, etc.).

The directors of the works were: Eng. Monteforte and the Arch. Cassia. There is a project to complete the building with forecasted spending of 20 billion old lire, of which 10 are available as “acquired funding”.