Teatro Palacio Valdés

Manuel del Busto's building for Avilés, begun in 1900 and completed in 1920, mixes neo-baroque with modernista detail and had to be laid out lengthwise along the street because the site allowed nothing else; within, it keeps the Italian arrangement of stalls and tiered boxes. Armando Palacio Valdés, the Asturian novelist and adopted son of the town, attended the opening and gave the house his name. Neglect closed it in 1972; a citizens' campaign brought it into municipal hands, restoration began in 1987, and it reopened on 14 November 1992 with 747 seats. The floor of the stalls can be raised level with the stage, turning the auditorium into a ballroom.