Manuel Bonilla National Theatre
Honduras's national theatre of 1915, its interior modelled on the Athénée Comique in Paris.
The theatre grew out of a committee formed in 1905 by Tegucigalpa writers, among them Rómulo Ernesto Durón and Froylán Turcios, to mark the tercentenary of Don Quixote. Building took ten years and the house opened on 15 September 1915. The French engineer M. Surgueois drew the design, taking the Athénée Comique in Paris as his model for the interior, while the Catalan architect Cristóbal Prats Fonellosa directed construction. The Honduran painter Carlos Zúñiga Figueroa carried out the decorative painting.
Behind a stuccoed front with paired pilasters, the auditorium has stalls and three shallow tiers of boxes under a painted ceiling, seating a few hundred. It is named after Manuel Bonilla, president when the theatre was completed. Four campaigns of restoration have kept it in use, the most recent covering dressing rooms, plumbing, carpets and seat upholstery with support from Honduran companies. It remains the principal stage in the capital for the national symphony orchestra, recitals, dance and drama.
Highlights
- Opened on 15 September 1915 after ten years of building
- Interior modelled on the Athénée Comique in Paris
- Decorative painting by Carlos Zúñiga Figueroa
- Main stage in the capital for the national symphony orchestra
