Greco Cinema

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1967 · Authors: Javier Díaz-Llanos, Vicente Saavedra

Greco Cinema was one of the best cinemas in Santa Cruz. It occupied a huge space in a building that Radio Club Tenerife had left unfinished and which the new owner, Fernando Lecuona, was determined to convert into a cinema hall. 

After a thorough transformation and remodelling of the existing space carried out by architects Javier Díaz-Llanos and Vicente Saavedra, Greco Cinema was inaugurated on 30 March 1967 with the war film The Battle of the Bulge. That night, the crème de la crème of Santa Cruz society attended the premiere.  

Access to the interior was via a staircase leading to a spacious foyer. The subtly decorated auditorium had a total capacity of 1024 seats; it was equipped with the latest technical advances in image and sound.

The installation of the cinema in this part of the city gave a new commercial dynamic to the area, which had previously lacked one.  

Greco Cinema was a premiere venue for films of recognised quality until 1985, when it closed its doors, pressed by the sector's galloping crisis. The following year, in 1986, with its interior completely remodelled, it was transformed into a venue with four screens, renamed Multicines Greco. Its definitive closure occurred in 2004. 

The building, currently apparently unused, is barely preserved.

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