History

The story begins earlier, in 1908, when the Garden-hall Passos Manuel opened as Porto’s first grand public hall, complete with gardens, luminous fountains and a small theatre. Demand outgrew it. By 1937 plans for a modern replacement were underway, and the old hall was shuttered and demolished the following year. The new project passed through several hands. Architect José Porto abandoned it. Dutch architect Jan Wils produced designs that went unused. Júlio de Brito’s plans were rejected by Porto’s building commission, though he stayed involved through his ties to the site’s insurance-company owner. Cassiano Branco took over as principal architect in 1939, with Brito assisting; Parisian theatre designer Charles Ciclis contributed interior work, though apparently only his candelabras and doors survived into the final building. It opened on 19 December 1941. Tastes shifted again. By 1971 the hall had become a cinema. In 1995 its sale to the Brazilian church IURD provoked public outrage, prompting a citizens’ association and the municipal council to buy the building back the following year. A fire during an event soon after gutted the stage and dressing rooms; the hall reopened within months. Heritage classification, first proposed in 1981, was finally confirmed in 2010. Since 2015 the Balleteatro company has been in residence, and in 2022 the city council approved a private concession for its management.