Cinema Victoria

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1928

This cinema, installed adjacent to the premises of the Victoria tobacco factory, near Plaza de la Paz, was inaugurated on 7 April 1928 with the silent film His Highness the Prince, also known as The Student Prince, made in 1927 by directors Ernst Lubitsch and John M. Stahl. 

Cinema Victoria was one of the oldest cinemas in the city. The building, which still stands today, was constructed as a venue with ambitions to host premiere films, although its sober façade never adequately represented this.  

The audience accessed the venue through a half-covered porch with a sloped floor towards the ticket booths. From here, one entered an irregularly shaped hall where, by changing the walking direction, access to the auditorium was gained. The trapezoidal stalls had 538 seats. Via a staircase and from the auditorium, there was an exit to a large courtyard adjoining the tobacco factory, from which the audience was evacuated to the street. It was a complex labyrinth, popularly nicknamed the "Coffin".

Its best period was during the 1930s and 1940s, competing as a premiere cinema. By the late 1960s it became one of the first Art and Essay cinemas, being renovated for this type of screening. Thus, less commercial independent films in their original version with subtitles arrived in Tenerife. 

Cinema Victoria ceased operations in 1975. Since then, this space has functioned as a garage, maintaining inside aspects such as the projection booth and part of the decoration that recall its original function.

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