Teatro Micaelense
Ponta Delgada's 1951 cine-theatre, restored in 2004 as the Azores' main cultural and congress centre.
The Teatro Micaelense was inaugurated on 31 March 1951 in Ponta Delgada, on a site cleared through the old town expressly to receive it. It was designed by Raul Rodrigues de Lima, an architect who specialised in cinemas and theatres, at the initiative of the shipping director Francisco Luís Tavares and with backing from São Miguel society. The thousand-seat auditorium and the finishes of its Salão Nobre were widely admired, and for four decades the building anchored cultural life on the island.
Falling receipts and the decay of the fabric closed the theatre in the 1980s. The Regional Government of the Azores rehabilitated it to a design by the architect Manuel Salgado, and it reopened on 5 September 2004; the second balcony was removed to house control rooms and simultaneous translation booths, and the technical installations were rebuilt. It now operates as the Teatro Micaelense - Centro Cultural e de Congressos, programming theatre, dance, classical music, jazz, cinema and exhibitions.
Highlights
- Mid-century cine-theatre of 1951 by Raul Rodrigues de Lima
- Main auditorium originally seating about a thousand people
- The Salão Nobre, the building's grand reception room
- Rebuilt as a cultural and congress centre, reopened in 2004
