Green light for the rehabilitation of the Arnau theater

After two decades of abandonment, the Arnau Theater is beginning to glimpse its rebirth. The Barcelona City Council has definitively approved the rehabilitation project for this historic building located in Paral·lel. The works, which have a budget of more than 10 million euros, are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2025 and last for two years. The objective of the reform is to preserve the essence of the original structure, the barraca theater, with the use of materials such as wood.

The rehabilitation of the Arnau will turn this space into a multipurpose building that will host performing arts activities, live arts and other cultural manifestations that have historically developed in this center, while preserving the memory of the space. The theater also wants to become a community center, which welcomes and involves entities, neighbors and professionals from the cultural sector of adjacent neighborhoods, such as Poble-sec, Sant Antoni or Raval.

The last time the theater raised its curtain was in 2004. Subsequently, the consistory, which owns the building since 2011 ---after several demolition attempts--- began a participatory process with entities and neighbors to define its future and the decision was made to rehabilitate it maintaining the original structure. The winning reform proposal, selected in 2018, was developed by the Harquitectes firm. Now, the City Council has approved the definitive version, which introduces some variations to the original project, such as, for example, the suppression of the basement floor, to reduce the built area and optimize the distribution of spaces.

The Arnau, inaugurated in 1984, is the last barraca theater preserved in Catalonia. The Arnau rehabilitation project is part of the recovery of the Paral·lel venues, a neuralgic point of leisure centuries ago. Examples of this rehabilitation include the El Molino venue, which reopened in November as a concert hall by the organizers of the Cruïlla Festival. It has even extended further, as in the Teatre Muntanter.

With the reform, the Arnau will once again raise its curtain, with the forecast that performances can begin during the 2027 season. However, while the equipment was not being rehabilitated, its theatrical activity has been maintained and since 2018 it has offered shows in a nomadic version, off the building's stage, in nearby streets or squares, under the name Arnau Itinerant, a public cultural project managed communally.