The front
Tall columns and arched windows.
Olivia Isabel Flores — CC BY-SA 3.0 · PatriciaTT — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Juakoxaguilar — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Evelyn3986 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Juakoxaguilar — CC BY-SA 3.0
The National Theatre is a grand yellow building in the historic centre of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, and one of the country's leading venues for the performing arts. Its Great Hall is counted among the most beautiful and elegant in Central America. The present theatre replaced an older national theatre destroyed by fire on the night of 17 February 1910. It was designed by the French architect Daniel Beylard and opened on 1 March 1917, built with the Hennebique reinforced-concrete system, one of the first buildings in the region to use it. The French Renaissance front lines up tall columns between arched windows beneath the theatre's name. Inside are Art Deco and Rococo decoration, crystal chandeliers and marble floors, and the hall's dome carries the mural «El mestizaje cultural» by the Salvadoran painter Carlos Cañas. The square in front looks across to the cathedral and its patterned dome. Check the programme, as tours of the interior may only run at set times. The theatre is about 10 km in a straight line from the El Boquerón crater. Watch your belongings in the busy city centre.
Tall columns and arched windows.
Among the region's finest.
By Carlos Cañas.
Historic centre, downtown San Salvador, El Salvador
On 1 March 1917, after a fire destroyed the earlier theatre in 1910.
Check the theatre's programme, as visits may run only at set times.