Teatro Civico

The first theatre purposely built to this end was inaugurated in La Spezia in 1846 in a part of the city outside the city walls; the project was drawn up by the architect Ippolito Cremona from Ticino, an interpreter of the Genoese neo-classical style. After several alterations introduced at the end of the century, Cremona’s theatre, by now quite unsuited to the demands of a growing city needing to celebrate its rising importance, was demolished and replaced by a new theatre satisfying the new demands. Designed by Franco Oliva with the help of the sculptor Augusto Magli, author of the series of decorations, the theatre fully satisfies the functions required of it: a sort of secular cathedral, a place of words, the civic theatre takes on the elongated shapes of art deco, comes alive with the softly elegant figures on the façade and in the foyer, watchful protective deities. The decorative virtuosity is completed inside the theatre where a large cupola that can be opened and adorned with the Zodiac by Augusto Magli makes dialogue possible between the inside and outside, between the real stars and the sculptor’s constellations, projecting and reflecting the real world onto the feigned world of the stage in this way.