Municipal Theatre of Piraeus

Korai Square, Piraeus, 1882-95

Architect
Ioannis Lazarimos (1849-1913)

The Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, a work by Ioannis Lazarimos, distinguished architect and NTUA professor, is one of the few Greek theatres of the 19th century to have survived up to the present day. The decision to build it on a lot on the central Korai Square was made in 1883. Construction began on the building in 1884 and ended in 1895. In order to cover most of the theatre’s operating and maintenance expenses, 25 rented shops were created in its base.
The Municipal Theatre, 34.50 m. wide and 47 m. long, was built in an absolutely free system. The slight slope of the ground and its central position in front of the spacious Korai Square gave Lazarimos an opportunity to create a magnificent, imposing building. With its harmonious proportions and organic integration into a monumental urban synthesis, this work belongs to the type of the "magnificent French theatre". The synthesis of the volumes was particularly successful. Only the rectangular elevation of the flat roof protruded above the pure, prismatic volume of the building that houses the main hall and the stage, and the colonnaded porch.
The hall, with 1400-1500 seats, has a horseshoe-shaped stalls area with 500 seats that were later reduced to 340. The remaining seats are divided among 23 boxes in the first two rows with low partitions, the balcony and the gallery
The lot was thus utilised so that the stage would have the largest possible dimensions and the public areas would be comfortable. The stage of the Piraeus Municipal Theatre is the best of all 19th-century Greek theatre stages. This is due both to the technological equipment and to its size: width 20.30 m., depth 16.15 m., and height 30 m. A significant area of the Piraeus theatre was the magnificent smoking room, 18 x 18 m., which evolved into a space for promoting all local intellectual and artistic movements. Special attention was devoted to ensuring the possibility of rapid and safe evacuation of the theatre, the innovative system of ventilation and heating of the main hall, and its protection against fire.
The exterior of the Municipal Theatre, in the classicist style, is organised rationally and in a uniform way, with the exception of the surfaces of the monumental section in front.
Stylistically, the side walls and rear façade are treated as follows: The ground floor section of the base, constructed of dressed stone masonry, is punctuated regularly by the arches over the shop doors and the theatre. The two upper floors are organised with gigantic Corinthian pillars. The upper row is differentiated from the lower one, whose windows are crowned with pediments. Above the cornice is a parapet with balustrade broken up by small piers placed on the axes of the surrounding pillars.
A similar architectural vocabulary has been used for the stylistic and plastic treatment of the main façade but in a more monumental manner. Here, as on the other surfaces, the vertical articulation predominates. The zone of the base is solid and smaller owing to the difference in the terrain. This has made the main zone predominant. It is organised by giant twin pillars with Corinthian capitals. Between them there are two rows of openings and false openings that are flanked by Tuscan pillars.
But the monumental appearance of the Piraeus Municipal Theatre is due chiefly to the imposing porch with its four marble unfluted columns in the Corinthian order. A magnificent marble stairway leads up to the porch.
The periodic refurbishments of the building that took place in 1927, 1946-47, 1962, 1967-68 and 1979-82, were not carried out with the care due to this remarkable theatrical monument.

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