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The history of the Teatro del Buen Retiro was short and complicated. It began with Manuel Gibert i Sans, president of the Gran Teatro del Liceo, who owned the first building in the Eixample to be built on the existing waste ground at the exit of the Puerta del Ángel wall (and which, over time, would become the current Plaça Catalunya). He decided to give up a part of some garden land located inside his house for the construction of the theater.
Despite having built the first building in the Eixample in an area claimed by the city for the construction of a plaza, Gibert had been aware of the stubbornness of the town and the authorities in achieving this objective for some time.
Gibert had bought in 1832, with the purpose of making an investment, the land that existed from the exit of the wall, followed by the Camino de Jesús (Paseo de Gracia), until the current Gran Vía, which made him one of the precursors of the demolition of the walls.
This fear and the desire not to have more problems in times that were far from easy, made him understand that the best thing would be for him to begin, slowly but surely, to forget about the continuity of his old building.
However, Gibert, since he had nothing clear about what to do with the building, performed a Solomonic performance with its surface. During the almost 30 years that the building was standing, demolished in 1895, it housed the Buen Retiro Theater, the Colegio de Vilar, a tobacconist, a gym and the popular Gran Café of the 19th century.
In 1876, he sold part of the garden land for the construction of the Buen Retiro theater. A tobacconist was installed in the basement of the house, with a sign on the door that read “National Tobacconist. All Classes Stamps.”
The Colegio de Vilar was installed in a part of the interior of the building. A high-class school, run by Santiago Vilar, a graduate in Science, where a large number of courses were taught.
The Buen Retiro Theater was one of the first buildings for shows opened in the garden of Casa Gibert, located in the northern part of the open space, and prevented the continuity of the junction of Ronda de San Pedro with Ronda Universidad.
It was inaugurated on June 3, 1876 as a theater for the summer season, under the direction of the actor León Fontova y Mareca and Rafael Ribas.
The great repercussion that the installation of roller skating rinks had at the end of the century led to the inauguration of the Skating Ring, a small skating rink in 1879.
In 1880 the García Parreño Society was established in honor of the deceased actor of Valencian origin.
In 1881 it was reformed and was relaunched again as a theater, with the premiere of potentially political works.
With the birth of La Vanguardia, on February 1, 1881, the 4th began to announce the programs that would be released on weekends.
His first programs were:
GOOD RETIREMENT.— For Sunday The Spirit of the Sea and soon the new comedy Captain Ghillver performed by more than two hundred boys and girls from six to ten years of age.
GOOD RETIREMENT. — The popular drama El sitio de Barcelona and the play Llueven trapras are scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday, January 5, 1894, the Buen Retiro Theater made its last announcement on the Billboard of La Vanguardia:
GOOD RETREAT. — Today, fashion day.- Benefit of the tenor Signor Kaltorini. — The opera Iinda di Cliamounix and the tenor aria from the opera El Bravo. Tomorrow, the last day of the season, in the afternoon La Traviata and Ave María de Gounod and a Rondeña; at night, the opera Gliugonotti and The Guillermo Tell Symphony.
The documentation to communicate the eviction of the theater did not arrive and, in the month of May, the performances returned to the Buen Retiro, resuming the programming until Sunday, April 19, 1886, the date on which its demolition began.
Subsequently, and as a consequence of a new delay in the urbanization of the square, the owners of the premises, taking advantage of the demolition material, carried out functions in a new construction, known as the Buen Retiro Pavilion, in a space set up between the Gibert House building and the Narcís Sala house.
