San Sebastián Cinema

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1929 · Authors: José Blasco Robles

From 1929 the San Sebastián Cinema began operating as an open-air film exhibition venue, in a location on the outskirts of the city, on the other side of the Santos ravine, near where years later the Nuestra Señora de África market would be located. 

In 1931, under the ownership of Juan Elio Díaz and the architect José Blasco, the entire cinema site was renovated, roofed and given a façade of simple rationalist forms.

Inside, the architect adapted the existing hall into a cinema, designing a small lobby above which he placed the projection booth. The stalls were given a 5% incline, an effect applied here for the first time, to improve the viewing of the 379 existing seats. 

San Sebastián Cinema was architecturally a good cinema, although during its existence it screened second or third run films. It ceased projection in 1950 and was demolished in subsequent years.

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