Opened in 1926 as a private venture, the Gran Teatro was bought by the regional government of Extremadura in 1986 and has been run since 1992 by a public consortium. It stands in the San Juan quarter, where the walled old town of Cáceres gives way to its nineteenth-century extension; since 2016 UNESCO has counted it inside the Extramuros buffer zone around the World Heritage site. The house was laid out for 1,039 places over stalls and three semicircular tiers, a figure since halved by remodelling and tighter rules.