Teatro Cine Fraga, Cultural theater and cinema in Vigo, Spain
Teatro Cine Fraga is a performance venue and cinema in Vigo located on Rua Uruguay, comprising approximately 7,000 square meters of space. The building features granite walls and decorative elements inspired by Santiago Cathedral's architectural style.
Isaac Fraga Penedo presented the cinema project to Vigo's council in summer 1941; architect Luis Gutiérrez Soto's second design was chosen, and works lasted six years due to technical problems. It opened on 27 March 1948 with the film Botón de ancla and 1,758 seats, becoming the city's main cinema until the 1980s.
The name comes from Isaac Fraga Penedo, a film producer from Carballiño who already ran most cinemas in Galicia's main cities by the 1920s. In the basement, the Nueva Olimpia discotheque opened in May 1973 and hosted Miguel Bosé, Massiel, Antonio Machín, Cecilia and Tom Jones before closing in August 2007.
The building has been closed since 28 June 2001, when its last screenings were Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in the main hall and Una noche con Sabrina Love and The Mummy Returns in screens 2 and 3. Caixa Galicia bought it that same month from Ignacio and Mercedes Fraga for 1,290 million pesetas. César Portela's renovation, begun in August 2007, is advanced but halted, so the interior cannot be visited.
The granite for the facade came from the Castrelos quarry, with the finest stone reserved for the ornamentation, while the internal structure is concrete. Foreign plasterers were hired for the interior work, and some elements won prizes in competitions held by Vigo's School of Arts and Crafts.
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